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    Jessica Pegula Draws Inspiration From Her Mother’s Healing. It’s Mutual.

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    For more than a year, Kim Pegula has been recovering from cardiac arrest. Her daughter Jessica’s climb in the tennis rankings reflects the strength the two find in each other.It was already Tuesday in Sydney, Australia, but Jessica Pegula was watching “Monday Night Football” on her phone on Jan. 3 as she waited to go onto the court at the United Cup. Suddenly, she felt the same sickening fear many football fans had that day, but perhaps with more resonance.On her small device, she witnessed Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, collapsing on the turf and saw the frantic moments as paramedics attempted to revive him and bundled him into an ambulance after his heart stopped beating.She knew how critical each one of those seconds was for Hamlin, who eventually made a remarkable recovery. Her mother, Kim Pegula, who is the president and an owner of the Bills, along with her husband, Terry Pegula, went into cardiac arrest in her sleep a little over a year ago. Kim Pegula’s recovery has been a slow, difficult process, made more challenging by the loss of oxygen when it happened.Jessica Pegula was so shaken that she considered not playing in the United Cup, but she eventually did. Days later, at the Australian Open, she wore a No. 3 patch on her outfit to honor Hamlin. Coincidentally, No. 3 was her singles ranking at the time, an astonishing achievement considering everything she had been through in the previous six months.The family sat vigil at Kim Pegula’s hospital bedside for days last June. Jessica left to play at Wimbledon with a jumble of emotions but also with the knowledge that it was what her mother wanted. Riddled with worry, worn down from the previous weeks and saddled with a sinus infection, she lost in the third round.At the Australian Open, Pegula wore a No. 3 patch in honor of Damar Hamlin, a Buffalo Bills football player who went into cardiac arrest during a game in January.Hannah Mckay/ReutersBut somehow, as her mother made steady progress, Pegula continued to play the best tennis of her career at age 28 (she turned 29 in February). She reached a semifinal of the Canadian Open and, for the first time, a quarterfinal of the U.S. Open — her third major quarterfinal of the year. She won the Guadalajara, Mexico, event last October and, in January, reached another quarterfinal at the Australian Open. At No. 4 in the world, she is the top-ranked American woman.On Sunday, she checked off another quarterfinal appearance when she demolished Lesia Tsurenko, in straight sets. She has now reached the quarterfinal stage at each of the four major tournaments. But for the sixth time in six tries, her pursuit of her first Grand Slam semifinal was blocked. She fell two games short, as Marketa Vondrousova came back from a 1-4 deficit in the third set to beat Pegula, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, on Tuesday.It was as close as Pegula has come to making a major semifinal and, considering how close she was, it was crushing. But it was just tennis, and later she took comfort in reflecting on how different she felt at this Wimbledon compared with last year’s, which came just a few weeks after her mother fell ill.“A year ago when I came here, I didn’t have any warm up,” she said. “My mom basically almost died. I think a year coming around to make quarters, to see that she’s able to watch my match, was a huge success for myself and for my family.”Still, it has been difficult traveling during these last 12 months and being away from her mother, who urges Pegula to fight on, just as she has.Pegula explained how her mother, who with Terry Pegula also owns the N.H.L.’s Buffalo Sabres, helped shape her tennis career without being overbearing. She said her mother had mostly left the tennis to others but had helped brainstorm ideas to help her get better and to navigate the complex and unforgiving world of professional tennis. She always took inspiration from her mother’s example of hard work and independent strength. Now, she says, her mother is taking inspiration from watching her on the court.Kim Pegula, one of the principal owners of the Bills, went into cardiac arrest in 2022.Michael Ainsworth/Associated PressIn an article in The Players’ Tribune in February, Pegula first revealed the events surrounding her mother’s illness and recovery, and outlined how she was playing on for her. On Sunday, after her fourth-round win, she spoke of the strength and motivation each was drawing from the other.“She wants to watch me on TV,” Jessica Pegula said Sunday. “I think that inspires her in her recovery, as well, to see me out there still playing.”And, despite Tuesday’s loss, playing well. Now healthy after injuries disrupted her progression through the ranks, Pegula has cashed in on consistency, her current No. 4 ranking tucking her in just behind the newly crowned Big Three of No. 1 Iga Swiatek, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Elena Rybakina.Pegula expresses no outward resentment that she is not included in their ranks, but she makes it clear that she is striving to shake up the perception that the top of the women’s tour is a triad.“I would definitely love to crash the Big Three party, if possible,” she said. “That would definitely be a goal. I mean, those girls have been playing really well.”All of those women are at least four years younger than Pegula. She was asked if experience had led to her recent success, but she insisted that health had been more important. Her career has been stalled by a knee injury and hip surgery, and being in the gym rehabilitating is an experience that differs from on-court matches.Jessica Pegula reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open in 2022.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesShe also said her consistency was no accident. When she reached her first major quarterfinal, at the Australian Open in 2021, she was determined not to leave it all to waste in the subsequent tournament in Doha, Qatar. She was ranked 44th at the time and had to win three qualifying rounds to enter that event, and ended up capturing six consecutive matches before falling in the final to No. 4 Petra Kvitova.“I don’t want to be that person that made the quarters of a Slam and then loses first round,” she said, and added, “I took a lot of confidence from that.”She has now reached the quarterfinals in five of the last seven Grand Slam events and is only the fifth American to reach the quarters at all four majors in the last 25 years, joining Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys, who made a quarterfinal on Monday by beating the 16-year-old Russian phenomenon Mirra Andreeva in three sets. Keys is scheduled to face Sabalenka on Wednesday.But the semifinal stage remains elusive for Pegula, and she could not say why.“I was one game away today, almost,” she said. “I don’t really know what the answer is. I keep putting myself in good positions. But I guess it’s not enough.”A few hours after her loss to Vondrousova, Pegula lost again in her doubles match. She and Coco Gauff fell to Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva, making it a perfectly miserable day. But she will return to the United States and, if time allows, see her mother. Soon enough, with the hardcourt season underway, she will be playing again, with Kim Pegula watching from home, and that is a great victory.“She wouldn’t want me doing anything else,” Pegula said of her mother. “I think she would want me to keep winning and to keep competing and putting myself out there.” More

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      Months Before Hamlin’s Collapse, Bills’ Co-Owner Also Suffered Cardiac Arrest

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      In an essay, Jessica Pegula, a top-ranked tennis player, described the health ordeal of her mother, Kim Pegula, president of the Buffalo Bills. Hamlin, a defensive back, went into cardiac arrest at a Jan. 2 game.Jessica Pegula, the professional tennis player, has revealed details for the first time about the health of her mother, Kim Pegula, a co-owner and president of the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres, describing how she went into cardiac arrest last year and is still struggling to recover.In an essay published in The Players’ Tribune on Tuesday, Jessica Pegula said she was writing about it now because she wanted to be more open after Damar Hamlin, the Bills defensive back, went into cardiac arrest during a game on Jan. 2. He was discharged from the hospital on Jan. 11.In her essay, titled “I Want to Talk to You About My Mom,” Pegula, 28, said that when she was at the Australian Open last month, she texted her husband about Mr. Hamlin’s ordeal. “The situation with my mom,” she wrote in the essay, “was weighing on me.”“When can we start talking about it?” she wrote. “When can I tell her story, my story, my family’s story? Everyone just keeps asking me. I really need to get it off my chest.”Jessica Pegula at the Australian Open last month. She is currently ranked fourth in the world.Sandra Sanders/ReutersKim Pegula, 53, and her husband, Terry, bought the Bills from the estate of the team’s founder, Ralph Wilson, in 2014. The couple paid $1.4 billion, then a record for an N.F.L. franchise.Terry Pegula, a billionaire businessman, made his fortune primarily in natural gas and in real-estate development. The Pegulas bought the N.H.L.’s Buffalo Sabres in 2011, as Jessica was turning 17.Kim Pegula and her husband, Terry Pegula, were introduced as the new owners of the Bills in 2014.Mike Groll/Associated PressIn 2022, the Pegulas acknowledged publicly that Kim had been facing significant health issues since the summer, without providing details.That changed with Jessica Pegula’s essay in The Tribune.“This is a story about my mother, my family and the past year,” she wrote.It started in June, when Jessica Pegula flew back to Florida after playing in the French Open. Her sister Kelly called her at about midnight, saying their mother was headed to a hospital in an ambulance after going into cardiac arrest. Her sister had given her CPR until the ambulance arrived and medics took over.“She saved her life,” Jessica Pegula wrote.Then came what she described as a “waiting game,” with months of uncertainty over the long-term impact on their mother’s health. After about a week, she was moved out of intensive care.“She was aware, talking a little, but a long way from her normal self,” Jessica Pegula wrote.Jessica Pegula, who is ranked fourth in the world, reluctantly went off to compete at Wimbledon. She had what she said were a “few good wins” amid the stress of her mother’s recovery, while fielding rumors that her mother had died and answering questions about her health.“Today, my mom is still in recovery, and although it is the same answer every time someone asks me, it is true, she is improving every day,” Jessica Pegula wrote.“She is dealing with significant expressive aphasia and significant memory issues,” she added, referring to a condition in which people struggle to speak in complete sentences or find the words they are looking for. “She can read, write and understand pretty well, but she has trouble finding the words to respond.”Jessica Pegula said her mother was behind her father’s success.“She jumped into this journey with him and learned many lessons along the way, breaking a lot of barriers,” Jessica Pegula wrote. “She was the shift in culture, positivity and the heartbeat of many of the employees. She gave everyone so much of her time and effort.”“Now we come to the realization that all of that is most likely gone,” she wrote. “That she won’t be able to be that person anymore.”At the Australian Open last month, Jessica Pegula wore a patch with Hamlin’s jersey number, 3. “Ironically, yes, I was ranked No. 3 in the world,” she wrote. “However, it didn’t feel like it was just for him, it felt like it was for my mom as well.”Jessica Pegula said that when she heard what had happened to Hamlin, it was a “bizarre, messed-up, full-circle moment,” considering what her mother had also endured.“Again, I usually don’t get too much anxiety, but the thought of what Damar and his family were about to go through hurt my heart,” she wrote.Jessica Pegula said that her family had always been private but her mother’s health scare had weighed heavily, creating a “massive void” in her family and in the Bills and Sabres organizations and a “harsh reality” for everyone else involved, including employees and fans.“I wanted to tell them all that you have no right knowing what happened, but at the same time people wanted to know because they were scared,” she wrote. “Their leader, boss, friend, co-worker, all suddenly didn’t answer her phone, or emails, and all her meetings were canceled.”Kim Pegula is now home, her daughter wrote. She gets to watch the Bills, the Sabres and Jessica’s tennis matches. Jessica Pegula said her mother was improving but her prognosis was uncertain.“Thank you to the Buffalo community for your patience,” she wrote. “I know you have wanted answers and it took us a while to get there but it finally felt like it was time.” More

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      Jessica Pegula Is Peaking Just in Time for the WTA Finals

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      After winning her second career singles title a week ago, the American player with world-class timing on the court has found herself the world No. 3.The tennis partnership between Jessica Pegula and David Witt got off to a roaring start. Only a few days after their first practice session, Pegula arrived in Washington, D.C., for the Citi Open with Witt, her new coach, and went on to win her first WTA singles title.That was in 2019, when Pegula was ranked No. 79 and still learning to trust her body and talent after major knee and hip injuries.“In the beginning, it was more me pounding it into her head that she’s really good,” Witt said. “And that she can beat these people and that there’s nobody better and whether they are top 10 or 20, it doesn’t matter.”Three years later, Pegula is a genuine member of the tennis elite: at No. 3 in the world in singles a week after winning her second career singles title in Guadalajara, Mexico, and beating four former Grand Slam singles champions along the way.The top-ranked American, Pegula is one of the headliners of the WTA Finals — the year-end championships of the women’s tour, reserved for the top eight players — beginning Monday in Fort Worth. It will be her first appearance in the exclusive event, and that has extra resonance for Pegula because it comes at the relatively advanced tennis age of 28.“Of course, I would have liked success younger, but I don’t know if it would have panned out the same,” she said in a recent interview. “I don’t think it would have. So, I’m particularly appreciative of it now. If I didn’t go through all the stuff I went through, I don’t think I would have developed the kind of strength that I think I used to help me do well now.”Pegula comes from an overachieving family. Her parents are Terry and Kim Pegula, the billionaire owners of the N.F.L.’s Buffalo Bills and N.H.L.’s Buffalo Sabres. Terry Pegula made a fortune in natural gas and real estate and married Kim, who was born in South Korea but abandoned by her biological parents and later adopted at age 5 by a family in the United States.“I think my mom was left on police station steps,” Jessica Pegula said. “It’s a crazy story. It could be like a movie.”Kim has been facing significant health issues since the summer, which the Pegulas have acknowledged publicly without providing details. Jessica, tearing up, dedicated her victory in Guadalajara to her mother.“My mom always kind of joked I was the first sports team as far as helping me with my tennis career growing up,” Pegula told reporters in Guadalajara. “I definitely wanted to dedicate it to her. She’s had a really tough year. I know she was watching.”Pegula after defeating Maria Sakkari at the Guadalajara Open.Ulises Ruiz/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPegula plans on giving her mother plenty more tennis to watch in the next two weeks. After the WTA Finals, she will travel to Glasgow to lead the United States in the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup team event.It will be a grueling finish to a busy season, one that No. 1 Iga Swiatek will not attempt. Swiatek declined to play in the King Cup finals for Poland, explaining that the tight, intercontinental turnaround put her at risk of an injury.Pegula agrees that the scheduling is far from ideal. She wants the team experience she missed last year when she had to withdraw from the King Cup finals; she tested positive for the coronavirus shortly after her wedding to Taylor Gahagen in October and had to spend what she called “a Covid honeymoon” at home in Boca Raton, Fla.“I definitely want to go,” she said of Glasgow. “I think it’s a good problem to have if I’m in the finals of both. So, it’ll be a tough turnaround, but it’s a tough two weeks and then I’m done. It’s like a reward.”Pegula’s best season has been about juggling it all: newfound success, newlywed life, her skin-care business and a spot on the WTA player council in the midst of a politically and financially fraught time for the tour.She is eager to develop skills that could translate into a role with her family’s sports franchises after her tennis career is finished. She said she has learned to feel at home outside her comfort zone.“Player council, I was really nervous,” she said. “I didn’t know if I knew enough, but I felt that if I was afraid to do it, then I should probably do it. I like to put myself out there and learn through different experiences. At one point, I’m probably going to have to say no, but I like saying yes, and my mom always told me to say yes and to do a lot of things and put yourself in different situations too.”Her agenda will be packed again this week. Pegula has qualified in singles and in doubles with Coco Gauff, her 18-year-old compatriot. Pegula and Gauff, who is ranked No. 4 in singles, are the only competitors playing both events in Fort Worth.Pegula and Gauff each extol the benefits of playing both events regularly on tour for fine-tuning their games and lifting some of the pressure from the singles result. They have teamed up to win three doubles titles in 2022, also reaching the French Open final.Asked for one word that summed up her partner, Gauff thought for a while before settling on “resilient.”That rings true despite Pegula’s privileged upbringing, which alleviated concerns about the training and traveling costs that pose obstacles for many other tennis talents.“It doesn’t matter how much money you have,” Witt said. “It’s something inside that drives you to want to win. A lot of people probably say, she doesn’t have to play tennis, but what would somebody do to satisfy that competitiveness if they didn’t play a sport or challenge themselves with something? I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there that would have never thought in a million years that Jessica would be top 10 or top five. But they don’t know her as a person. They don’t know how hard she works.”Witt, a 6-foot-3 former touring pro from Florida who had a huge serve and forehand, struggled to duplicate his junior success on the main circuit. But he has now proved himself twice as a top-drawer coach, working with Venus Williams, first as a hitting partner and then as a coach, for 11 years before they split at the end of the 2018 season.Dave Witt coached Venus Williams for 11 years before they split in 2018.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesPegula and Witt clicked from the start; they have become regular golfing partners and often travel without any other support team members.“Dave’s very calm, laid back a little bit, but at the same time super competitive,” Pegula said. “He’s a good fit for me because I’m kind of similar. Not a lot of things get me fired up or revved up, but I’m also very competitive. A lot of times growing up, I didn’t really know how to balance that. It was like, ‘You need to show more emotion.’ But that’s not me.”Pegula is not an explosive, acrobatic mover like Gauff or Swiatek; she’s not a flashy shotmaker like No. 2 Ons Jabeur. But Pegula is a clean hitter with world-class timing and plenty of pop in her groundstrokes and improved serve. Unlike some baseline bashers, she also has a Plan B and C and is ever more comfortable at net. In Witt’s view, her even-keel approach (with the exception of the occasional thrown racket) allows her to channel her energy effectively during matches. Her progress with Witt has been steady and increasingly heady. She was ranked No. 62 at the end of 2020 and No. 18 at the end of 2021 after reaching her first major quarterfinal that year at the Australian Open. She is now within range of the No. 2 ranking after reaching three more Grand Slam quarterfinals in 2022, losing to the eventual champion in all three — including another loss to Swiatek at the U.S. Open in September, after which she sipped a beer in a downbeat post-match news conference.Pegula now expects more. The thought of winning a major singles title still makes her uncomfortable, but that seems all the more reason to increase the pace of the chase. Stagnation, as Novak Djokovic once said, is regression.“Exactly,” Pegula said. “That’s perfect.” More

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      Jessica Pegula Cheers on Buffalo Bills From the Australian Open

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      When Buffalo plays Kansas City in their N.F.L. divisional playoff game, Jessica Pegula, whose parents own the Bills, hopes both she and the football team keep winning.MELBOURNE, Australia — As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan whose parents ended up buying the N.F.L.’s Buffalo Bills, Jessica Pegula has had to adapt. But she is in deep now, extolling the leadership virtues of quarterback Josh Allen even as she competes in the Australian Open tennis tournament, and taking the court in an outfit whose red, white and blue hues summon the Bills’ colors, thanks to her sponsor thinking ahead.“It was so random, but I’m like this is perfect,” Pegula said.She even signed the camera lens after her third-round singles victory with a tidy note that read: “Bills you’re next.”“I’m like come on, I backed myself up, now you guys got to get the win,” Pegula said with a chuckle ahead of the Bills’ divisional playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.Stacking up wins would be an outcome to savor for the Pegula family, and Jessica has provided another strong run down under.It was in Australia that she launched her breakthrough season in 2021 by reaching the quarterfinals. At 27, she is on the verge of leaping back into the top 20 whether she wins or loses in her fourth round rematch with Maria Sakkari, who saved six match points before beating Pegula in the round of 16 at the Miami Open last year in a memorable topsy-turvy duel.But Pegula has bounced back from worse. A child of privilege by her own admission, she has shown perseverance and pluck in her quest to become a Grand Slam contender. Yes, she had access to private coaching and abundant support from her family: her 70-year-old father Terry is a billionaire businessman who made his $5.7 billion fortune primarily in natural gas and in real-estate development.Pegula, in Bills red, white and blue, cooled down during her third-round match in Melbourne.Simon Baker/Associated PressBut Pegula had to overcome major knee and hip surgery in her late teens and early 20s that required extensive rehabilitation before she finally broke into the elite.“She was on her way up twice and had to start over again,” said Michael Joyce, who coached her for six years, beginning in 2011 after coaching Maria Sharapova. “Jessie could easily have thrown in the towel obviously with her family and her situation, and the fact that she kept coming back was special. A lot of people would have said, ‘Screw this, I’m done,’ especially in her position.”Tennis, with significant coaching and travel costs, is an expensive sport to master at a high level, but top ranked stars from ultra rich backgrounds are rare on the tour. Pegula is perhaps the first on the women’s tour since Carling Bassett, daughter of Canadian brewery executive John Bassett, broke into the top 10 in the 1980s.“I know a lot of people from very wealthy families who are pretty good, good enough to play in college or something, but they usually fizzle out,” Joyce said.Pegula said she has sometimes felt self-conscious about her family’s wealth, concerned it might make others uncomfortable. Joyce said she was often hesitant to organize training sessions with outsiders at the family’s luxurious home in Boca Raton, Fla., with its two tennis courts — clay and hardcourt.“I was maybe kind of trying to hide it a little bit,” Pegula said. “Then I think I kind of embraced it a little bit, not like over the top, but I think once I became more comfortable and I knew I was doing the hard work and all that I was, like, hey I do have a different story but maybe it’s kind of a cool story. Maybe it’s OK if I embrace the Bills and the teams a little bit more and stuff like that.”She added: “But I’ve always been kind of low key. I don’t like to flaunt, and I think that’s why I’ve been able to be successful, too.”The Pegula family, from left to right: Jessica, Matthew, Terry, Kelly, Laura and Kim, at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Oct. 10, 2014, when Terry and Kim were introduced as the new owners of the Bills.Gary Wiepert/Associated PressTerry and his wife, Kim Pegula, who was born in Seoul and grew up in Fairport, N.Y. near Rochester, bought the N.H.L.’s Buffalo Sabres in 2011 when Jessica was turning 17. They purchased the Bills in 2014 for $1.4 billion.It was not until then that Pegula said she became acutely aware of her family’s fortune, but it did not change how she felt about tennis.“I’ve always been super driven, before the Bills and the money and all that stuff,” she said.“This is always what I wanted. So, when all this stuff happened to me later on in my life, people would ask me, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And I’d be like, ‘I don’t understand. This hasn’t changed since I was 6 or 7 years old. Why would it change now?’”Pegula said she has come to believe that she has a responsibility to do justice to her advantages.“I’m given this amazing opportunity. Why would I want to sabotage that if I really love what I do?” she said. “I don’t shy away from the fact that people don’t get as many opportunities, and I think people are more realizing that giving everyone equal opportunities is important. But I didn’t choose the life I was supposed to have. You are kind of born into it, and I think everyone is dealt a different hand. It’s how you deal with it, and I’m glad that I was able to do it justice and not take it for granted. To me, it would be selfish to do a disservice to that.”Pegula has exceptional timing and her even temperament is an enormous advantage in matches.Jason O’Brien/EPA, via ShutterstockPegula said she has learned to “embrace the grind” — the fitness training, practice sessions and preventive work now required to keep her healthy after the injuries that could have ended her career.At 5-foot-7, she is not the most imposing athlete on a women’s tour increasingly inhabited by taller players with explosive power and movement. But she has exquisite timing, excellent fundamentals, a fine grasp of tactics and an even temperament.“It used to drive me nuts,” Joyce said. “She could go through a whole tournament without one fist pump.”Equanimity can be useful in a brutally competitive sport where success is precarious. One of Pegula’s closest friends, Jennifer Brady, was an Australian Open finalist last year but has now missed the last two majors with a chronic foot condition.It can all seem fragile, all the more so given the coronavirus pandemic. Pegula married her longtime boyfriend, Taylor Gahagen, in October at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., but her coach, David Witt, tested positive for the coronavirus and she, as a close contact, withdrew from the Billie Jean King Cup team event.The next day she tested positive. So did her husband. “We had a Covid honeymoon basically,” Pegula said. “We were in our house for two weeks.”Pegula with her dog Maddie, one of three, after defeating Camila Giorgi to win the women’s singles final at the Citi Open in 2019.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockThough Pegula said it took her “a few weeks” to recover, she enjoyed the extended off-season and the chance to spend time with her three dogs in Boca Raton: Maddie, a miniature Australian shepherd; Dexter, a German shepherd; and Tucker, a chocolate Labrador.“A lot of different personalities,” Pegula said. “Like three kids I guess. But you have to adapt.”Consider that her catchphrase. In earlier days, she had a dog named for Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey star. The Pittsburgh connection was real: Her father is from Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State. Though Jessica was born in Buffalo, the Pegulas lived in Pittsburgh when she was young.“We were really not Bills fans to be honest, but that’s obviously flipped,” she said, preparing to check the time difference carefully from Australia and watch Sunday’s big game. More