Meet Jessica Pegula, the Team USA tennis player whose parents are the billionaire owners of the Buffalo Bills | Business Insider India (2024)

Mykenna Maniece

Pegula was born in Buffalo on February 24, 1994. According to The Palm Beach Post, she lived in Pennsylvania and South Carolina before moving to Boca Raton, Florida, in 2007.

There, she trained with Dave Rineberg — Serena and Venus Williams' former hitting coach — while attending high school online before going to the University of Pittsburgh.

Rineberg told The Palm Beach Post in 2010 that the Williams sisters "had that same explosive power" as Pegula, and that's what "really excited" him about her.

Forbes reported that Terry Pegula founded the oil and gas company East Resources in 1983. He sold most of the company's assets in 2010 to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion, according to the publication.

In 2011, Terry Pegula purchased the NHL team, the Buffalo Sabres, for $189 million. And in 2014, he outbid Donald Trump to purchase the NFL's Buffalo Bills for $1.4 billion, per Forbes.

According to an essay Jessica Pegula wrote for the Buffalo Bills' website in 2023, her mom, Kim Pegula, was an active member of both organizations, serving as the president and co-owner of both teams — making her the first woman to hold such titles — as well as a member of the NFL's workplace diversity committee and the NHL's executive inclusion council. But Kim Pegula went into cardiac arrest in June 2022 and remains in recovery, and she will not be returning to the roles, The Athletic reported in May.

In August 2023, NBC Sports reported that Terry dissolved Pegula Sports and Entertainment, the company that held both the Bills and Sabres, and that he is now president of both organizations.

Following Pegula's 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinal loss to Markéta Vondroušová, The Times of London reported that she "needs dynamic that family billions can't buy," posing questions like, "Is it possible to be hungry for victory if defeat is not overly meaningful in terms of wealth?" and arguing that she "has a plan B whether she wants it or not."

Pegula addressed the controversy about her family's wealth in a season two episode of Netflix's "Break Point," which documented that loss and referenced the subsequent media coverage.

"The journalists that write about me have no freakin' clue. I can't buy my way into a semifinal. I was just like, 'What kind of clickbait trash is this?'" she said.

She also defended her upbringing in the episode.

"Some people get this image that it's really easy for me because my dad is very wealthy, but that didn't happen till I was 17 or 18," she said. "They gave me a great childhood and instilled a lot of work ethic in me. They definitely got me to this point."

In a November 2023 interview with Forbes, Pegula elaborated on her family's wealth and its impact on her career as a professional athlete, saying that someone isn't going to become a successful athlete unless they "work hard," are talented, "and really are driven to get there."

On her dad's side, she has two older half-siblings, Michael and Laura, as well as two full siblings, Kelly and Matthew.

According to Buffalo Business First, she and Kelly previously owned the restaurant and café Healthy Scratch before closing the locations in 2022.

Pegula told Forbes she was inspired to play by her older half-sister Laura, who played collegiately at the University of Pittsburgh.

The Palm Beach Post reported that Pegula started taking tennis lessons at age 7 and that her family moved to Boca Raton, Florida, in 2007 to help her pursue her dreams.

In 2010, Pegula told The Palm Beach Post, "I really appreciate everything they do for me. They've given up a lot. We've moved down (here) just to give me a shot, because they believe in me."

"My mom always jokes, 'Do you know how much money you owe me from these tournaments? If you ever win a grand slam, pay me back,'" she added.

Unlike Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz, who burst onto the scene as teenagers, Pegula didn't have her big break until her mid-20s.

She reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal during the 2021 Australian Open and has since competed in the quarterfinals at every Grand Slam tournament.

However, she's still fighting for a Grand Slam singles title.

Pegula told Forbes they've "learned a lot from each other from playing doubles" and that they "have a lot of fun."

She also described Gauff as "definitely Gen Z," and said they poke fun at each other for their generational differences, such as Pegula not understanding TikTok trends.

The duo will compete together in the Paris Olympics, for Gauff's Olympic debut and Pegula's second time at the Games, with hopes to become the first American women's doubles team to win gold since Serena and Venus Williams won in 2012.

Pegula did compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but she lost in the first round of the singles tournament and in the quarterfinals of the women's doubles tournament with partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

In December 2023, Forbes reported that Pegula was the seventh highest-paid female athlete of the year, earning $6 million on the court and $6.5 million off the court.

Her sponsors include major brands, like Adidas, Yonex, Ready Nutrition, IBM, De Bethune watches, Dyson Zone headphones, and Gorjana jewelry.

She has been outspoken about the gap between male and female tennis players' pay, telling the outlet, "We always talk about how it's equal at Slams, but those are four tournaments a year — it's not equal at a lot of the other tournaments."

"I think we need to do better at marketing our game," she added. "It's such an international sport, and there are so many different stories, and we reach so many people. But are we really telling those stories the best way we can to the fans?"

Pegula helped found the organization in 2022, a decision she said was inspired by her mother, who was adopted from an orphanage in South Korea and raised in upstate New York.

In a post for the Buffalo Bills shared in May 2023, Pegula wrote, "I'm not sure she ever cared about or even saw the barriers that were in front of her entering the sports world, a male-dominated field without a ton of Asian American representation. She broke those barriers without even knowing it."

"Once she did realize what she had accomplished, she became a voice for representation in sports," Pegula added. "We have the same goal with the AAPITA. The AAPI tennis community is large but underrepresented. We hope to empower leaders, grow visibility, and create programming that encourages youth participation."

Forbes reported that Pegula founded the company in 2017 while recovering from hip surgery with the help of a "business connection in Buffalo."

Per Ready 24's website, the company creates "easy-to-use products with clean ingredients," including a vitamin C cleanser, lavender mist, and moisturizers.

Forbes reported that Pegula was "essentially a one-woman company," involved in every step of the process, from choosing consistencies and smells to running the company's Shopify and social media accounts, helping with web design, and even writing the labels.

Now, as her tennis career has progressed, she's been forced to take a bit of a step back and focus on hiring help.

"It's been a hard act to kind of balance all the responsibilities that I have from before, when it was just, you showed up at practice," Pegula said. "I'm a perfectionist, and I want it to be successful."

Pegula, Gauff, Danielle Collins, Madison Keys, and Emma Navarro are all among the top 15 women's tennis players in the world.

Following the US Tennis Association's tweet recognizing the accomplishment on July 17, Pegula tweeted, "let's go, girls."