Meet Jessica Pegula, the Team USA tennis player whose parents are the billionaire owners of the Buffalo Bills

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.”

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.

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.

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.”

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.”