Jessica Pegula

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

On August 30, 2011, Pegula was granted a wildcard exemption 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 given 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 Grand Slam singles debut at the 2015 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 Cibulkova, in three sets.

In 2018, Pegula reached her first WTA singles final at the Tournoi de Québec 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.

2019: First WTA title

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.

2020: ASB Classic finalist

Jessica started her 2020 tennis season in Auckland at the ASB Classic. 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. In the semi-finals, she beat Caroline Wozniacki in three sets to advance to her third career WTA singles final. Facing off against compatriot and 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 Western & Southern Open, a Premier 5 tournament. 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. 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.

2021: Australian Open

Pegula attained major success at the 2021 Australian Open, defeating former Australian Open champion and 12th seed Victoria Azarenka, Kristina Mladenovich, former US Open champion Samantha Stosur and 5th seed Elina Svitolina to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final.

The older daughter of Kim Pegula and the middle daughter of professional sports investor and natural gas tycoon Terry Pegula, Pegula resides in Charleston, South Carolina. In August 2016, it was announced that Pegula and her sister would be opening a quick serve restaurant called Healthy Scratch in LECOM Harborcenter, an ice hockey themed mixed-use development owned by her parents in Buffalo, New York. The Healthy Scratch business was to be expanded to food truck service in 2017. In 2017, Pegula introduced her own skincare line called Ready 24.

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Pegula will be making her World TeamTennis debut in 2020, and will be joining the Orlando Storm at the start of the season, beginning July 12 at The Greenbrier.

Pegula emerged as one of the top players in the WTT 2020 season. After the dismissal of Danielle Collins, Pegula went on to play women's singles, women's doubles with Darija Jurak, and mixed doubles with Ken Skupski and Tennys Sandgren. She posted a strong 9-2 record in singles to help the Storm earn a No. 3 seed in the WTT Playoffs. The Storm would ultimately fall to the Chicago Smash in the semifinals.