American tennis player Jessica Pegula The Belarusian lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s singles final at the US Open on Saturday. Sabalenka won in two sets, both times by scores of 7–5.
Pegula, as she had all tournament, fought back after falling behind. Some sublanca He took a 3-0 lead in the second set after the first set, but Pegula took the next five subsets. Sabalenka won the next four to close out the match.
Sabalenka won 22 straight 11 of her last 23 sets in the match. The 26-year-old from Belarus won her third Grand Slam title after winning the last two Australian Opens.
Pegula won 15 of his last 16 matches, all on the hard court used at Flushing Meadows. The only loss in that span came against Sabalenka in the final of the Cincinnati Open last month. After a surprise run to the final, Pegula again lost to Sabalenka on the stuff.
Pegula is a 30-year-old No. 6 seed from New York and was appearing in her first career Grand Slam final. She was 0-6 in major quarterfinals until eliminating No. 1 Iga Switek in that round on Wednesday.
Both players came from very different backgrounds and tennis upbringings.
Pegula is upstate New York Royalty. His parents, Terry and Kim Pegula, own the Buffalo Bills of the NFL and the Buffalo Sabers of the NHL. The family’s net worth is over $7.5 billion.
In September 2021, Jessica Pegula was spotted with her mom Bill’s Pod Squad podcast, where she credits her athletic success to her parents.
“Dad and I are like oil and water on a tennis court, it doesn’t mix well,” she said, laughing. “But he definitely pushed me to do better. To work hard, always work hard, you can always beat somebody, all that kind of stuff. It’s very old school.”
He added that his mom has helped him stay fit behind the scenes.
“You were more off-court, get healthy, like diet, recovery, you know, training and stuff like that.”
Meanwhile, Sabalenka was born in Minsk, the capital city of Belarus. Her father, Sergei Sabalenka, was an ice hockey player in Belarus and inadvertently introduced her to tennis.
“One day, my dad was taking me somewhere in the car, and on the way he saw a tennis court. So, he took me to court. I really liked it and enjoyed it, and how it was. That’s how it started,” she said in an interview with TennisMajors.com In August.
Her father died in 2019 at the age of 43 and was unable to see her win her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024. Still, these titles helped her come closer to fulfilling her father’s dream.
“I lost my father four years ago,” she later told reporters. “We had a dream: that before 25, I would win two Grand Slams,” she said after winning this year’s Australian Open final against Zheng Qinwen.
Sabalenka won her first Grand Slam before the age of 25 at the 2023 Australian Open and her second before turning 26 this year, as her birthday is in May.
Sablanka too Lost her boyfriend This year after Belarusian hockey player Konstantin Koltsov, who spent time with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL, died by suicide in March at the age of 42.
Sabalenka now has her third Grand Slam title and looks to add another at the Australian Open in January.
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