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Jessica Pegula is surprisingly in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open
Photo:
Quinn Rooney / Getty Images
Just recently, Forbes magazine published the list of the highest paid female athletes in the world.
Traditionally, the top positions are taken by tennis professionals.
Nowhere else can women make so much money.
Naomi Osaka leads the ranking.
The Japanese earned a total of $ 37.4 million between the beginning of June 2019 and the end of May 2020 - closely followed by Serena Williams ($ 36 million).
Angelique Kerber also made it into the top 10.
Germany's best tennis player had to be satisfied with $ 5.3 million (click here for the list).
Jessica Pegula is also a tennis player.
She doesn't appear on the Forbes list.
Nevertheless, she will become one of the richest athletes: Pegula is the daughter of billionaire Terrence Pegula.
According to Forbes, only 128 people in the USA are wealthier than him.
He made his money in the oil and gas industry, in 2014 he bought the Buffalo Bills - to the chagrin of Donald Trump.
The ex-president was also said to have an interest in the NFL team.
Inspiration from an NFL quarterback
Jessica Pegula is currently making the headlines.
At the Australian Open, the first highlight of the tennis season, she made it into a quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
And that quite furious: On the way to the round of the best eight, she beat Viktoria Asarenka (Belarus) and Australian Sam Stosur, two former Grand Slam champions - without giving up a sentence.
Then she defeated Kristina Mladenovic (France) and the Ukrainian Elina Switolina, two other top players.
Women don't need inspiration from men to be successful.
But Jessica Pegula once said of her father's team, Buffalo Bills quarterback, impressing her: “I liked his fighting spirit.
He was a real player, he just wanted to win.
It's great to see, ”she told Reuters about quarterback Josh Allen.
She wanted to transfer these characteristics into her own game.
Pegula is no longer considered a clear outsider after her recent appearances.
With the help of trainer David Witt, who has also looked after Venus Williams, she has slowly worked her way up.
After the tournament she will be among the top 50 players in the world for the first time.
Her self-confidence, she emphasizes again and again, is greater than ever.
The American's career seemed to end before she really started.
In 2009 Pegula started her first professional season at the age of 15.
She celebrated her first successes at the second-rate ITF tournament series.
In November 2012 she was among the 150 best players in the world for the first time.
But injuries threw them back.
Her knee in particular caused her problems, in 2014 she only took part in one tournament.
Another attempt was stopped by a hip operation.
At the time, Pegula did not know whether she "even wanted to come back," as she recently revealed.
But since 2018 she has been calling her level of performance constant.
In September she moved into a WTA final for the first time, the following year - a few months before the corona-related tournament break - she won her first tournament in Washington.
Now she made the longed-for breakthrough at the Grand Slam level.
Pegula's game is offensive and risky.
She makes more mistakes than her opponents, but also scores significantly more direct points.
The 26-year-old likes to storm the net to keep the rally as short as possible.
Against Switolina, 21 attacks of this kind were crowned with success.
Following the greatest victory of her career, Pegula signed a ritual common among tennis professionals on the lens of a camera: "Hi mom, hi dad, see you next rd Jen B." With "Jen B." her upcoming opponent is Jennifer Brady meant
(
not before 3am on Wednesday night).
The two know each other well, for the USA they formed doubles in the Billie Jean King Cup (formerly Fed Cup).
"It's a great opportunity for both of us," Pegula said.
It is important to Pegula not to be reduced to her father's fortune.
"I'm not just the daughter of a rich father, I'm a tennis player in my own right," she said at the Australian Open.
Thanks to her skills on the tennis court, she is already financially independent.
A tournament win would earn her more than two million dollars.
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