What is Jessica Pegula's net worth?
Jessica Pegula is an American professional tennis player and heiress who has a net worth of $10 million. As of this writing, Jessica has earned a bit more than $5 million in tournament prizes and has reached a peak of #7 in the world rankings.
Family Fortune
Jessica is the daughter of billionaires Terry Pegula and Kim Pegula. The Pegulas are best known for owning the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres professional sports teams through their holding company, Pegula Sports.
Terry Pegula earned his fortune as the founder of a natural gas company called East Resources. He founded the company in the early 1990s and sold the majority in 2010 to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion. Before selling the company he had received several billion in dividends. In 2014 he earned another $1.75 billion selling additional East Resources assets and shares to American Energy.
Terry and Kim have taken this fortune and invested into an empire that now includes fracking, real estate, entertainment, and of course, professional sports.
Terry and Kim bought the Buffalo Bills in 2014 for $1.4 billion. The team has no debt and they have no other partners. Today the team is worth $3-4 billion.
In 2011 the Pegulas bought the Buffalo Sabres NHL team and its arena for $189 million. Today the Sabres are worth around $700 million.
(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Early Life
Jessica Pegula was born on February 24, 1994 in Buffalo, New York. As we mentioned a moment ago, she is the daughter of Terrence and Kim Pegula. Jessica's mother Kim was born in Seoul but was abandoned on the streets as a child. She spent time in an orphanage before being adopted by an American family at age five. Kim has no recollection of her biological parents or time in South Korea. Kim and Terry met when she went in for an interview to be a waitress at a restaurant in Belfast, New York. Terry was dining at the restaurant at that very moment and they struck up a conversation. They kept in touch and he subsequently offered her a job at his natural gas company East Resources. She took him up on the offer in 1991. In 1993 they married.
Terry and Kim had three children and Terry came to the marriage with two children from a previous relationship.
Tennis Career
In 2011 Jessica earned a wildcard entry into the US Open doubles. She and her partner Taylor Townsend went on to lose in the tournament's third round.
In 2012 she earned a wildcard for the tournament at Indian Wells. She qualified for the main draw but lost in the first round in three sets.
Jessica Pegula qualified for her first Grand Slam singles tournament at the 2015 Us Open. She reached the main draw and won her first match. She lost in the second round in three sets.
By 2018 Jessica had broken into the top 100. After winning the singles title at the Washington Open, her ranking jumped to #55. She finished 2019 ranked #76 in the world.
At the 2020 US Open Jessica reached the third round. It was the first time she had gone so far in a Grand Slam.
In 2021 she cracked the top 20 and reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open. In May of that year she defeated world #2 Naomi Osaka to advance to the second round of the Italian Open, eventually making it to the quarterfinal. The ext month she reached the third round of the French Open and the quarterfinals of the German Open. With these two results, Jessica breached the top 25 rankings for the first time.
In 2022 she reached the quarterfinals at the 2022 Australian, French and US Open events. Heading into the US Open Jessica was ranked #8 in the world.
Personal Life
In 2021 Jessica married Taylor Gahagen. They met through his job as an executive at Pegula Sports and Entertainment.
Other Endeavors
With her sister, Jessica launched a restaurant called Healthy Scratch in 2016. The following year the duo launched a Healthy Scratch food truck business.
Also in 2017, on her own Jessica launched a skincare line called Ready 24.
