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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Dylan James

Jessica Pegula is richest sports person in the world amid US Open tennis hype

You know you're loaded when the £2.2 million pay packet on offer at the US Open doesn't touch the sides. Then again, that speaks volumes about the drive of US Open star Jessica Pegula.

Pegula is worth more than Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams combined. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the iconic tennis trio make up roughly £850 million.

Well, this pales in comparison to Pegula's astronomical net worth.

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The world's eighth seed has an incredibly wealthy background, with her father being the 345th richest person on the planet. The family's net worth is £5.8 billion.

Wow.

Father Terrence made is money from natural gas development. The 71-year-old also owns numerous sports teams, including Buffalo Bills of the NFL and hockey side Buffalo Sabres.

According to Forbes, Terrence's oil and gas company East Resources, sold the bulk of its assets to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion in 2010. He started East Resources in 1983 after loaning $7,500 from friends and family, to say it paid off would be an understatement.

To give some context to this incredible wealth and power, Terrence outbid Donald Trump and Bon Jovi for the purchase of Buffalo Bills in 2014, where he sealed a $1.4 billion deal.

So it is fair to say that Jessica Pegula could quite easily drop her racquet and walk away from tennis right now, and never have to worry about money again, but her career means more to her than money.

On Wednesday September 7th, Pegula faces world number one seed Iga Swiatek in the quarter finals of the US Open. The match is set to go ahead at 7PM New York time, which is midnight on Thursday morning for those of us in the UK.

Pegula's career has been spiked by injuries, and there was a time where she could have easily walked away from the sport. After rehabilitation following surgery in 2014, she lost her comeback match three years later, and her prize cheque was a meagre $147.

Now in the knockout rounds of a major tournament and the eighth seed in the world, this epitomises the burning desire that Pegula has to achieve - backed by billions, fazed by nothing.

All matches from the US Open are being shown on Amazon Prime.

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