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    • Jessica Pegula strikes back and has another chance at the Grand Slam
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    Jessica Pegula strikes back and has another chance at the Grand Slam

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

    Jessica Pegula is the daughter of a billionaire. She has fought hard to reach her place among the top 10 tennis players. She will be playing in her seventh Grand Slam quarterfinal.

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    NEW YORK – The last time Jessica Pegula lost in a Grand Slam quarterfinal, she was greeted the next morning with a headline in The Times of London that made clear how misunderstood her career had been.

    “Six quarter-finals, six defeats: Jessica Pegula needs a dynamism that her family’s billions cannot buy.”

    Aside from the general cruelty and unfairness that can typify the British tabloids, it was just plain weird. Yes, her parents Terry and Kim Pegula own the Buffalo Bills. Yes, being the daughter of a billionaire offers a tennis player a certain level of security that others don’t have when they’re barely making a living and often losing money in low-level tournaments.

    But you don’t become one of the best tennis players in the world because your family is rich. And you don’t win or lose Grand Slams because you were born into privileged circumstances.

    If Pegula’s tennis career has been about one thing, it’s that she took the hard road to the top and earned everything she has.

    It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t until the seventh year of her tour that she made it into the top 100, it wasn’t until she was 27 that she became one of the best players in the world, and it wasn’t until shortly before her 30th birthday that she became a so-called Grand Slam disappointment.

    But after six quarterfinal losses, Pegula has another chance to break through at the US Open. After a solid 6-4, 6-2 win over Diana Shnaider on Monday, Pegula is back in the quarterfinals with a chance to rewrite her career history once again and get closer to a Grand Slam title than ever before. On Wednesday, she will play number one seed Iga Swiatek.

    “There are so many variables every day, but I think I’m just going to try to draw from this experience and how I’ve maybe handled it in the past and what I want to do differently mentally this time around,” she said. “I’m just glad I can give myself another chance.”

    When Pegula lost the 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinals, perhaps some criticism was in order. She led 4-1 in the third set against Marketa Vondrousova and seemed to be in full control before everything went wrong. Vondrousova won five games in a row, took the match and claimed the title a few days later.

    But in general, it should not be forgotten that Pegula was never considered a candidate for the second week of the Grand Slams until 2021. Then she managed to play six Grand Slam tournaments in three years and the expectations were suddenly completely different. Then the question arose why she kept losing.

    Pegula’s analysis of why she kept hitting her head against that ceiling prompted her to make significant changes earlier this year. After a disappointing second-round exit at the Australian Open, she parted ways with her long-time coach, David Witt, who had been with her since the start of her rise. Then, barely settling in with a new coaching team, Pegula suffered a rib injury and missed the entire European clay-court season.

    All this made Pegula wonder if the pursuit of something bigger had led her down the wrong path.

    “I definitely questioned everything at the time,” she said. “I kind of lost some confidence, but I think I’ve shown in the past that any time I’ve been injured or out for a while or something has happened, I’ve bounced back. I just put it all on the line and was able to work on some things with a change of coach and find some balance there as well.”

    It is safe to say that Pegula is back where she was before – and perhaps even better.

    After a second-round exit at the Olympics, she bounced back to defend her title at the Canadian Open, then reached the final in Cincinnati, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka. Pegula carried that form into the US Open, where she reached the quarterfinals without dropping a set. And no matter what happens from here, Pegula will leave New York as the top-ranked American.

    “I think I knew when I came on the hard court that I was comfortable here and I could definitely get back to my form and luckily I managed to do that,” she said. “I can’t say I knew that was going to happen but I would say I believed in this process and believed that I could work hard and get back to where I was and here we are. When I look back on those difficult moments, I definitely don’t know if I had exactly as much belief as I do now but I look back fondly at where I was and I’m very proud that I was able to get through some difficult moments at the beginning of the year.”

    One of the most endearing things about Pegula’s personality and her game is that – despite her family background making her an easy target for criticism – she has no sense of entitlement. She has travelled the long road to the top of women’s tennis and was not satisfied with just being in the top 10 when she got there.

    She even takes the usual route to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, riding public transportation instead of taking her rental car. With Pegula, it’s always unfair to assume anything just because she happens to be the daughter of a billionaire.

    “People think I have a butler, am chauffeured around in a private limo, and fly privately everywhere,” Pegula said. “I’m definitely not like that. People can think what they want, but it’s kind of weird. People say, ‘Oh, she probably has this and that and that.’ No, not at all. Maybe I should. I don’t know, is that what you want me to do? It’s a little annoying because I don’t know anyone who lives like that.”

    As one of the best tennis players in the world, she deserves to be judged strictly on her performance. If she falls in another quarterfinal, it will be solely because of what happened between the lines that day. And if we’ve learned anything from Pegula’s time in the spotlight, it’s that she won’t stop improving until she finally makes her breakthrough.

    Follow Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken

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    Caradoc Wyn
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