Although she already has some remarkable results, when you enter the name Jessica Pegulová in the Google search engine, it usually gives you the information that she is the undisputed richest tennis player in the world. But the truth is that the 30-year-old American does not like to hear about it, and it is even more difficult for her to talk about it.
Fortunately, being a semi-finalist at the US Open will be a part of her sports story from now on. The native of Florida defeated world number one and currently the biggest tennis star Iga Swiatek on Wednesday.
She managed it after a superb performance 6:1, 6:4. Czech Karolína Muchová will be her opponent tonight in the fight to advance to the finals.
Rich parents
Pegulová is a special sports phenomenon. She achieves her best results at an advanced tennis age, because she has never been among the best singles four at a Grand Slam tournament before.
She only reached the top 100 in 2019, which was her seventh year on the WTA circuit. She fought, she didn’t give up and today she is number six in the world.
However, a light-hearted person would say that she didn’t even have to try, since she is insured until the end of her life. Even if it lasted several hundred years.
The nice American comes from a very rich family. Her parents own a large sports empire, which includes not only the Buffalo Sabers hockey club, but also the famous brand from the NFL – the American football team Buffalo Bills.
But that’s just “fun”, sports have always been high on the Pegul family’s list of priorities, but their wealth comes from oil and gas companies founded by Jessica’s father, Terry.
In May 2024, Forbes estimated their net worth at nearly seven billion US dollars. Among other things, this staggering wealth allowed them to own huge luxuries, such as a superyacht worth 16 million called “Top Five II” or a mansion in Florida for three million.
Terry Pegula is a savvy businessman who founded East Resources in the early 1990s and less than two decades later sold most of it to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion.
Before the transaction itself, he received several billion in dividends. He “shot” more shares and assets to American Energy to earn another $1.75 billion.
He then used the money he raised to build an empire that includes hydraulic fracking, lots of real estate, entertainment and – of course – professional sports.
The Buffalo Bills were bought by the Peguls in 2014 for $1.4 billion, and in ten years they have improved the brand considerably. They once gave 189 million for the Sabers with the arena, today it is worth at least four times more.
“Poor” boys
But beware, even Jessica Pegulová herself is not resting on her laurels. She has already accumulated fourteen million dollars through a successful tennis career.
She earned part of it from rewards, the rest from various sponsorships. By the way, just for the participation in the semifinals of Flushing Meadows, he will score another million. And if she wins the entire tournament on Saturday, multiply times 3.6.
The phrase that “although she shouldn’t have to”, is also active in the business field is hitting the tongue again. In 2016, he and his sister opened a restaurant called Healthy Scratch. Twelve months later, they added the Healthy Scratch food truck to it.
In addition, Jessica herself introduced her own skin care products called Ready 24. She has contracts with Yonex and Adidas, and although the exact information about the amount of income she receives from them is not official, it is rumored that it is at least four million.
Still, she would never have topped any rich list without the billions she stands to inherit. For comparison, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the two best footballers of this century, have a little more than one billion in their coffers.
In their case, it’s roughly fifty-fifty. The Portuguese icon has earned a significant amount of money through various sponsorships, including a lifetime partnership with Nike and business deals with Herbalife, Tag Heuer and Clear Haircare.
Ronaldo’s earnings increased significantly when he signed a $226 million-a-year contract with Saudi Arabian team Al-Nassr for two and a half seasons in January 2023.
Foreign media reports that Messi is only slightly better, with a lifetime contract with Adidas, his own clothing collection and partnerships with Pepsi, Gatorade, Budweiser and many others.
Butler and chauffeur
Pegulová – although, according to calculations, she has five times more than these two football giants – would certainly not like such a comparison.
She didn’t even hide her frustration at being named the “world’s richest tennis player” in 2023 in the Netflix series Break Point. On the contrary, she decided to speak openly about the disadvantages of her family’s enormous wealth.
“Some people think it’s really easy for me because my dad is very rich, but that didn’t really happen until I was seventeen or eighteen.
My father was probably harder on me than my parents were on my peers. He instilled a lot of work ethic in it and it helped me get to this point,” she told reporters about her feelings, which have been weighing on her soul for a long time.
“I hate it when people write horrible things on social networks. I don’t think I owe anyone anything. To prove those people wrong now. I don’t care.
At the same time, it’s a dark moment in my career, they ask me why I’m doing this? I’m subjecting myself to the same question over and over again and it’s – to put it bluntly – shit.”
He has to deal with similar questions at this year’s US Open. Even after her progress to the top eight, the debate at the press conference turned to money.
“People really think that I have my own butler, that I am driven by a chauffeur. I have a private limousine and a plane with which I travel everywhere. But I’m definitely not like that. Let everyone think what they want,” she concluded the debate.
In the hope that in a few days the subject may turn again. Who knows, maybe this time for her victory at the US Open.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
