Earlier this US Open, Jessica Pegula did something that millions of New Yorkers do every day.
A video posted on it Instagram account It showed her riding the subway, except unlike most passengers, she was carrying tennis bags and preparing to play in her eighth main draw in Queens.
“It’s normal to me,” said Pegula, the current number 5 in the world and the daughter of billionaires Kim and Terry. ‘And people say, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you did that. ‘ And I say, ‘Well, why? I like taking the train. I like taking the subway.
“It’s funny when people assume I fly private jets everywhere or I have a chauffeur driving me around since I was five,” she added. “I’m like, what? Or I have a butler… that’s not how it works.”
Pegula, who spoke exclusively to Mail Sport after her second-round win against fellow American Sofia Kenin, is an affable personality who, like her WTA peers, has been training for a professional career since she was a child.
Jessica Pegula’s family is worth billions, but she thinks fans sometimes get it wrong about her
But it’s easy to see where the assumptions come from.
Pegula’s father, Terry, sold most of his natural gas company for a whopping $4.7 billion in 2010, according to Bloombergand the family purchased the NFL’s Buffalo Bills four years later.
TO headline last summer She even blamed her sixth consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final loss on a missing “dynamic” that her family’s “billions can’t buy” after being eliminated from Wimbledon.
However, as the 30-year-old noted, her family’s extreme wealth didn’t come until she was a teenager, and she believes people sometimes “have an image in their head” of her that’s wrong.
‘People jump to exaggerated conclusions. I grew up in a pretty normal family, and a lot of that (his family becoming multimillionaires) didn’t happen to me until I was older and playing. My goal from the time I was six or seven was to be No. 1 in the world. That was before a lot of other things happened. I mean, before that, I was just a normal kid growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, taking classes after school. So I think that’s the kind of difference that maybe the casual fan doesn’t understand as well.
“Usually it’s just random people who, I don’t know, probably don’t have anything better to do,” he added of criticism of his family’s wealth. “But I would say that I think everyone who tours knows me pretty well and obviously they know it’s not easy. So I don’t think there’s any disrespect from anyone I work with, at least.”
Pegula, left, is seen with her family after her parents Terry (center) and Kim (right) purchased the Buffalo Bills in 2014.
Pegula advanced to the third round after defeating American Sofia Kenin on Thursday
That should be the case, as Pegula has forged an impressive career and established herself as the second-highest ranked American woman behind Coco Gauff.
She has reached the quarter-finals of every Grand Slam, but not beyond that, so questions have naturally arisen about her ability to break through.
Pegula led 4-1 with a break point in the final set of last year’s Wimbledon quarter-final against Marketa Vondrousova before eventually losing the match, and eventually changed coaches in February after eliminating Queens in last year’s round of 16.
Speaking about the decision to part ways with her former coach David Witt, she previously said she was approaching the “final phase of my career”. Since that move, her year has been up and down, as she was knocked out of the second rounds of this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon, before reaching the final in Cincinnati earlier this month.
She seemed upbeat, however, as she spoke from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, drawing inspiration from a male player seven years her senior.
‘Watching someone like Novak (Djokovic) play and obviously still be one of the best players in the sport right now… at such an advanced age, definitely, I think you see people doing well (at) older ages, and that definitely helps you.
“Obviously turning 30 doesn’t mean turning back,” she continued. “I think it’s just taking a step towards a new life, new challenges and maturity, and just wanting to know that I’ve given myself time to try other things.”
Pegula has also drawn motivation from the other end of the age spectrum.
She spent a lot of time playing doubles with and getting to know Gauff, 20, and was pleased to see her win her first Grand Slam last summer in Queens.
Along with Gauff, Danielle Collins (who will soon retire), Emma Navarro and Madison Keys, Pegula is one of five American women in the top 20 right now. But of course, she wants to be the next to have her moment in the spotlight.
“Last year, it was really nice to see her win,” he said of Gauff. “Obviously, I’d love to win one, too. But it definitely helps when you play and practice with someone and then you see them doing well. It’s definitely motivating.”
Pegula and Coco Gauff have long been known as doubles partners, with the former saying she was happy to see her fellow American win last year’s US Open.
Pegula cited Novak Djokovic, 37, as an inspiration as he enters a different phase of his career.
“And I felt like that’s something that a lot of American girls are doing right now. I mean, there are a lot of us and you see all of us doing really well, and when you see that, it makes you feel like you can do the same things. So it’s always motivating and inspiring to see that.”
Pegula has beaten two American players at this tournament, Kenin and Shelby Rogers, and Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro awaits in the third round on Saturday.
The spectres of her previous quarter-final shortcomings will of course continue to haunt her as she progresses through this tournament, but for now, having achieved her best Grand Slam result this season, she is living in the present.
“I have to trust that if I keep putting myself in those situations, I can get through it,” he said.
“…Of course, I would love to overcome that obstacle, but at the same time, I have to get there first.”