Jessica Pegula

Jessica Pegula (born February 24, 1994) is an American professional tennis player.

She has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 3 in singles, achieved on 24 October 2022, and world No. 1 in doubles, achieved on 11 September 2023.

Pegula has won four singles titles and seven doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including two WTA 1000 titles in each discipline.

Pegula is a six-time major quarterfinalist in singles, having reached this stage at all four Grand Slam tournaments; thrice at the Australian Open (2021–2023), and once at the French Open (2022), US Open (2022), and Wimbledon (2023).

She has also reached the singles final at the 2023 WTA Finals.

In doubles, Pegula reached the women's doubles final of the 2022 French Open partnering Coco Gauff and the mixed doubles final of the 2023 US Open with Austin Krajicek.

Pegula was born in Buffalo, New York to Terry and Kim Pegula, the owners of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League and the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League.

She is of Korean descent, as her mother was born in Seoul.

Pegula has four siblings, two of whom are from her father's first marriage.

On August 30, 2011, Pegula was granted a wildcard into the main draw of the US Open doubles tournament where she was paired with Taylor Townsend.

They eventually lost in the third round to the third-seeded team of Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova.

In March 2012, Pegula was handed a wildcard to the qualifying draw in Indian Wells, and surprised higher ranked players Bojana Jovanovski and Paula Ormaechea to qualify for the main draw where she lost to Magdaléna Rybáriková in three sets.

Pegula made her major singles debut at the US Open as a qualifier.

She defeated Shuko Aoyama, Margarita Gasparyan and Melanie Oudin to reach the main draw where she beat Alison Van Uytvanck in the first round.

In the second, Pegula was defeated by Dominika Cibulková, in three sets.

Pegula attained success at the Australian Open, defeating former Australian Open champion and 12th seed Victoria Azarenka, Kristina Mladenovic, former US Open champion Samantha Stosur and fifth seed Elina Svitolina to reach her first major quarterfinal where she lost to eventual runner-up, Jennifer Brady, despite winning the first set.

Her run came to an end with a straight-sets loss to 14th seed Elise Mertens.

This took her ranking back inside the top 65.

At the US Open, Pegula recovered from a set down to record her first Grand Slam main-draw win since the 2015 US Open, defeating Marie Bouzková in a third-set tiebreak.

She then beat Kirsten Flipkens to advance to the third round of a Grand Slam event for the first time, where she lost to sixth seed and former world No. 2, Petra Kvitová.

In 2018, Pegula reached her first WTA singles final at the Tournoi de Québec in September as a qualifier.

She beat Kristýna Plíšková, Ons Jabeur, second seed Petra Martić and fifth seed Sofia Kenin en route to the final, where she lost to eighth seed Pauline Parmentier in straight sets.

This brought her ranking back inside the top 200 and helped her finish the year inside the top 125.

Pegula began the year primarily playing on the ITF Circuit, before cracking inside the top 100 in February for the first time in her career.

This allowed her to enter several larger WTA Tour events, including in Indian Wells and Miami.

Her best result during the early clay court season came in Charleston, where she upset world No. 12, Anastasija Sevastova, en-route to the third round.

This helped her break inside the top 75 for the first time.

She also competed in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament other than the US Open for the first time.

She was defeated in the first round of the French Open by eventual champion Ashleigh Barty before falling in the same stage at Wimbledon to Mihaela Buzărnescu.

Pegula achieved the best result of her career at the start of the North American hardcourt season when she won her first WTA career singles title at the Washington Open, defeating Camila Giorgi in the final.

This took her to a new career-high ranking of world no. 55.

Despite failing to win another main draw match the rest of the season, Pegula finished the year ranked inside the top 100 for the first time, at No. 76.

Having already beaten two Russians to qualify for the main draw, she opened her campaign with a straight sets win over American Jennifer Brady followed by a win over another countrywoman, 2019 French Open semifinalist Amanda Anisimova.

She then caused a huge upset by defeating fifth seed and world No. 11, Aryna Sabalenka, in the third round, thus advancing to her first quarterfinal at any WTA Premier level event.

Pegula started her 2020 tennis season at the Auckland Open where she defeated CiCi Bellis in the first round.

She followed this up with two more straight set victories over Tamara Zidanšek and Alizé Cornet to reach the semifinals.

There she beat Caroline Wozniacki in three sets to advance to her third career WTA singles final.

Facing off against 23-time Grand Slam singles winner Serena Williams for the first time, Pegula lost in straight sets.

She then competed at the Australian Open for the first time, where she was defeated by another American, Taylor Townsend, in straight sets in the first round.

Pegula's next big triumph came at the Cincinnati Open, a Premier 5 tournament.