Tennis: No butler: Pegula’s path to the “childhood dream”

Jessica Pegula looked over her loved ones in the stands and fought back tears. With her emotional comeback victory, the American tennis player with the unusual life story fulfilled her “childhood dream” of reaching the final of the US Open.

“The title would mean the world to me,” enthused the 30-year-old after her 1:6, 6:4, 6:2 defeat against Czech Karolina Muchova in the semifinals, addressing her family. “I’m so happy that I can share this moment with them.”

Sitting in the seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, his husband, brother and sister were in their box, as was his father Terrence from a box. The 73-year-old made his billion-dollar fortune in oil and gas, is one of the 400 richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine, and, together with his wife Kim, owns a sports empire with the NFL team Buffalo Bills and the NHL team Buffalo Sabres.

Pegula: “It was so embarrassing”

Pegula’s supporters had to wait a long time on the way to the final against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated American Emma Navarro 6:3, 7:6 (7:2) in the first semi-final. On her own serve, the world number six was already 1:6, 0:2 and 30:40 behind, but fought her way back into the now high-class game and turned the match around.

“She made me look like a rookie. I wanted to cry. It was so embarrassing because she destroyed me,” Pegula said of the beginning of the match. “I don’t know how I managed to turn that game around.”

This energetic performance means that US fans can hope for a second consecutive women’s title win after Coco Gauff won last year. For Pegula, who comes from Buffalo, New York, this is her first Grand Slam final ever, after she had previously failed in the quarterfinals of the four major tournaments six times.

Fighting public scepticism

This is also why Pegula has had to fight against public scepticism in her career, given her family’s wealth. When the British newspaper “The Times” wrote in 2023, after her Wimbledon exit in the round of the best eight, that Pegula needed a dynamic that her billions couldn’t buy, she hit back that she would definitely not buy this article. She captioned her post on social media with a trash can emoji.

Pegula doesn’t fit the classic clichés. During the US Open, she posted a video on Instagram of herself riding the subway to the venue in the Queens district. What upsets her most? “That people think I have a butler, that I’m chauffeured around, that I have a private limousine,” she said during the tournament. “That’s definitely not who I am.”

Sabalenka wants to shake off final experience – and promises drinks

The fans in New York love her either way. A factor that her opponent in the final also takes into account in her preparation. In last year’s final, Sabalenka lost her first US Open title against crowd favorite Gauff after winning the first set – partly because the crowd unnerved her. And now, after a stable start, she also wobbled in the final phase against Navarro, who was cheered on frenetically.

“Last year was a very hard experience, a very hard lesson. I said to myself today: ‘No, no, no, Aryna,'” the Belarusian reported after her match. “It won’t happen again. You have to control your emotions.”

And so Sabalenka continued her charm offensive after reaching the final. “Now you’re cheering for me, that’s a bit late,” she said jokingly to the cheering fans after the victory. “Even though you were cheering her on, I had goosebumps, it was an incredible atmosphere.” At the end she tried to win the audience over to her side with a lure offer and announced over the stadium microphone: “Margaritas for everyone.”