It was already Tuesday in Sydney, Australia, but Jessica Pegula was watching Monday Night Football on her phone on January 3 while waiting to take the pitch at the United Cup. Suddenly, she felt the same sickening fear that many football fans felt that day, but perhaps with greater resonance.
On her small device, she watched Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapse on the turf and saw the frantic moments as paramedics tried to revive him and loaded him into an ambulance after his heart stopped.
She knew how crucial each of those seconds was to Hamlin, who eventually made a remarkable recovery. Her mother, Kim Pegula, who is the president and owner of the Bills, suffered cardiac arrest in her sleep along with her husband, Terry Pegula, just over a year ago. Kim Pegula’s recovery was a slow and difficult process, made even more difficult by the loss of oxygen when it happened.
Jessica Pegula was so devastated that she considered not competing in the United Cup, which she eventually did. Days later, at the Australian Open, she wore a No. 3 patch on her outfit in honor of Hamlin. Coincidentally, finishing 3rd in her individual rankings at the time was an amazing achievement considering what she had been through over the past six months.
Last June, the family sat guard at Kim Pegula’s bedside for days. Jessica left full of emotion but also knowing that playing at Wimbledon was what her mother wanted. Worried, exhausted from the weeks before and wracked with a sinus infection, she lost in the third round.
But somehow, at the age of 28 (she turned 29 in February), Pegula continued to play the best tennis of her career while her mother made steady progress. She reached a semifinal at the Canadian Open and a quarterfinal at the US Open for the first time – her third major quarterfinal of the year. She won the event in Guadalajara, Mexico last October and reached another quarterfinal at the Australian Open in January. With number 4 in the world, she is the best-ranked American.
On Sunday, she secured another place in the quarterfinals when she defeated Lesia Tsurenko in straight sets. She has now reached the quarterfinals of each of the four major tournaments. But for the sixth time in six attempts, she was denied entry into her first Grand Slam semifinal. She fell two games behind as Marketa Vondrousova came from a 4-1 deficit in the third set on Tuesday to defeat Pegula 6-4 2-6 6-4.
Pegula came so close to making a major semi-final and considering how close she came, it was mind-blowing. But it was just tennis, and she later consoled herself by reflecting on how different that Wimbledon had made her feel compared to last year, which came just weeks after her mother fell ill.
“When I came here a year ago, I didn’t have a warm-up,” she said. “My mother basically almost died. I think it was a great achievement for me and my family that I had a year to settle down and make sure she could follow my play.”
Still, it has been difficult traveling in the last 12 months and being separated from her mother, who urges Pegula to keep fighting as much as she is.
Pegula explained how her mother, who also owns the NHL’s Buffalo Sabers alongside Terry Pegula, helped shape her tennis career without being pushy. She said her mother left the sport of tennis to others for the most part, but helped her brainstorm ideas to get better and navigate the complex and unforgiving world of professional tennis. She was always inspired by her mother’s example of hard work and independent strength. Now, she says, her mother gets inspiration from watching her on the pitch.
In an article in The Players’ Tribune in February, Pegula first opened up about the events surrounding her mother’s illness and recovery, and how she was doing next. On Sunday, following her fourth-round win, she spoke about the strength and motivation each drew from the other.
“She wants to see me on TV,” Jessica Pegula said Sunday. “I think it inspires her in her recovery to see me still playing out there.”
And played well despite the defeat on Tuesday. Pegula is now healthy after injuries hampered her rise through the ranks and has benefited from her consistency. Her current No. 4 ranking puts her just behind the newly crowned Big Three of No. 1 Iga Swiatek, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Elena Rybakina.
Pegula doesn’t express outward displeasure at not being accepted into their ranks, but makes it clear that she’s trying to shake up the perception that the top of the women’s tour is a triad.
“I would definitely like to join the Big Three party if possible,” she said. “That would definitely be a goal. I mean these girls played really well.”
All of these women are at least four years younger than Pegula. She was asked if experience had led to her recent success, but she insisted health was more important. Her career was stalled by a knee injury and hip surgery, and rehab at the gym is a different experience from playing on the pitch.
She also said her consistency is no accident. When she reached her first major quarter-final at the Australian Open in 2021, she was determined not to let everything go to waste at the tournament that followed in Doha, Qatar. She was 44th at the time and had to win three qualifying rounds to compete in this event. She ended up winning six straight games before losing to No. 4 Petra Kvitova in the final.
“I don’t want to be the person who made it to the quarterfinals of a slam and then loses in the first round,” she said, adding, “That gave me a lot of confidence.”
She has now reached the quarterfinals in five of the last seven Grand Slam events and is only the fifth American, after Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys, to reach the quarterfinals at all four majors in the last 25 years on Monday by defeating 16-year-old Russian phenomenon Mirra Andreeva in three sets. Keys is scheduled to face Sabalenka on Wednesday.
But the semi-finals remain hopeless for Pegula and she couldn’t say why.
“I was almost a game away today,” she said. “I don’t really know what the answer is. I always put myself in a good position. But I think that’s not enough.”
A few hours after her loss to Vondrousova, Pegula lost again in doubles. She and Coco Gauff fell victim to Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva, making for an absolutely miserable day. But she will return to the United States and, time permitting, see her mother. Pretty soon when the hard court season is underway she’ll be playing again, Kim Pegula can watch from home and that’s a great win.
“She wouldn’t want me to do anything else,” Pegula said of her mother. “I think she would want me to keep winning, keep competing and keep trying.”