Jessica Pegula admits that her background was in the back of her mind at the start of her career as she wanted to prove that she was more than just a rich girl from a wealthy family.
Pegula, who is one of five kids of American businessman Terry Pegula, is now third-ranked on the WTA Tour rankings list and widely considered among the best tennis players in the world.
Pegula’s father is one of the wealthiest individuals in the United States as Forbes estimated his net worth to be around $6.7 billion.
“I think it’s always something I’ve had in the back of my mind a little bit, but I think at the same time when I was younger, I would maybe try to prove myself too much. I think that would create more pressure. Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable as far as my family or my background and stuff like that. I think maybe taking that pressure off helped me to earn my accomplishments and have people more recognize my name on the tennis court than not. So it’s definitely a very rewarding, satisfying feeling. Especially when a lot of people I know, they know me as a tennis player and a great tennis player. I think that’s always really nice to hear,” Pegula explained, per the WTA website.
Pegula: It’s a testament to my hard work
Pegula, who captured her maiden WTA 1000 title in Guadalajara and is also set to make her WTA Finals debut now, admits that she probably needed to do more than others in order to earn respect.
However, she is happy that her hard work paid off and that nowadays people mainly recognize her as Pegula the tennis star and not as Pegula the girl from a wealthy family.
“It’s just a testament to all the work I’ve put in and all the hours and the hard work that I’ve had to put in to earn that right. I always knew that maybe in a way it would almost be harder for me to earn that because that’s not what my family is known for. I’ve kind of stopped trying to prove that so much. In the end, I think it came naturally, which is nice,” Pegula said.