US Open 2024: Who Is Jessica Pegula, American Billionaire’s Daughter Stunned World No 1 Iga Swiatek To Enter Semifinal

World No. 6 tennis star Jessica Pegula caused one of the biggest upsets in the ongoing US Open 2024, stunning world No. 1 Iga Swiatek 6-2, 6-4 to march into her maiden semifinal at a Grand Slam. Before Wednesday night, Pegula had lost 6 quarterfinal matches in Grand Slams but the US Open 2024 proved to be 7th time lucky.

Pegula will take on unseeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic for a berth in the US Open final. But one of the unknown facts about 30-year-old tennis star is that she is the daughter of an American billionaire businessman and owner of NHL team Buffalo Sabres and NFL team Buffalo Bills.

Jessica is the daughter of business tycoon Terry Pegula, who made most of his fortune through gas and natural energy business. Terry started his career working with Getty Oil and Felmont Oil Co. before starting his own natural gas drilling company called East Resources.

Terry went on to sell part of his business to Royal Dutch Shell for approximately $4.7 billion in 2010. He sold more of his assets in 2014 to American Energy Partners in 2014 for $1.75 billion. Jessica’s father still maintains ownership of the Greater Rocky Mountain Regional Oil & Gas in Colorado and Wyoming, and JKLM Energy in Pennsylvania.

The Pegula family purchased Hockey Western New York LLC in 2011, and became owners of the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL and the Buffalo Bandits of the NLL. They ventured into NFL after they placed the winning bid for the Buffalo Bills in 2014.

Jessica’s family current have a net worth amounts to $7.7 billion as per Forbes, which doesn’t include Jessica Pegula’s earnings. “There have been so many freaking times, and I just kept losing,” Pegula said after her win over Swiatek.

“I know everyone keeps asking me about it, but I was like, ‘I don’t know what else to do. I just need to get there again and, like, win the match.’ So thank God I was able to do it. And finally — finally! — I can say, ‘Semifinalist.’”

Semifinalist has a nice ring to it pic.twitter.com/7i6SWbU4Bv

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2024

The lopsided nature of Pegula’s win was surprising, but she did not think this day would never arrive. “I knew I could do it,” she said. “I just had to go out and execute my game and not get frustrated.”

Swiatek served poorly in the first set and her forehand was a real problem, with 22 of her 41 unforced errors coming on that side. Pegula made only 22 unforced errors in all and used terrific defense to keep forcing Swiatek to hit an extra shot.

“It’s never easy to play against Jess. She has a tricky ball because it’s pretty low and pretty flat,” Swiatek said. “I just made too many mistakes.”

Pegula also kept breaking serve against Swiatek, who counts the US Open 2022 among her five Grand Slam titles and has led the WTA rankings for most of the past 2 1/2 years.