All-American Wimbledon affair sees billionaire female star win in 49 mins and bank $118k prize money
Jessica Pegula punched her ticket to the Wimbledon second round on Tuesday with a ruthless straight sets victory.
Fifth seed Pegula made extremely light work of compatriot Ashlyn Krueger in the all-American affair on Court 2, romping to a 6-2, 6-0 victory in just 49 minutes.
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The 30-year-old, who reached the quarter-final stage at last year's championships, broke in the opening game of the first round match before racing into a 4-0 lead within the first 10 minutes.
The former world no.3 sealed the first set with an ace and continued to overwhelm her American opponent, ranked 75th in the world, in the second set.
The 20-year-old Krueger racked up 29 unforced errors in the match and was the receiving end of a bagel in the final set.
"I know Ash and she has a big game, my goal was to build a big as lead as possible to fall back on," Pegula explained in her on-court interview.
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"You never know with Wimbledon, I think it’s important to play every point no matter what."
Pegula wrapped up the match in less than 50 minutes, securing a cool $118k (£93k) paycheck for advancing to the second round.
That may seem like a tidy sum for most, but for billionaire heiress Pegula that's pretty much chump change.
The tennis ace is the daughter of businessman and petroleum engineer Terry Pegula, who boasts an estimated net worth of $6.8billion.
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Pegula's parents are also owners of NFL franchise Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL).
Jessica, who has made $13million in career earnings, is a six-time major quarter-finalist in singles, having reached that stage at all four Grand Slam tournaments,
She has also reached the final of the 2022 French Open, partnering with Coco Gauff, and the mixed doubles final of the 2023 US Open with Austin Krajicek.
A loss to Emma Raducanu in Eastbourne prior to Wimbledon beginning, Pegula is in fine form having lifted her first WTA Tour grass-court trophy in Berlin two weeks ago.
When asked how much of an impact winning in Berlin for her first grass title helped coming into the game, Pegula added: "It’s taught me to have confidence, winning a title on grass, having that patience. I think it helped a lot.
After beating Kreuger, she admitted she studied her opponent's patterns ahead of the match.
"I know that I think, thought at least, that she likes the slice serve a little bit more," she .
"On grass it's the better serve; my forehand return, I feel like sometimes it can be good, but maybe I make a few more errors on that side. But it's more dangerous. I thought she would kind of start that way. I wanted to take that away at the beginning of the match. It definitely comes down to a lot of prep.
"I've played several matches where maybe it starts off that way and then they change it up because they realize it's not working. At the same time, I think you have to adapt and just be aware of where they're going, but also be aware of where they're serving a lot. Especially early on, especially on big points, or when they're down in a game -- what's their favorite serve? You want to just keep that in the back of your mind sometimes for bigger moments throughout the match."
The world no.5 will now face Wang Xinyu, who defeated Viktoriya Tomova 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-0 in her first round match.
Pegula will also try her hand in the women's doubles at the All England Club this year.
She's teaming up with friend and fellow American Coco Gauff for a run at the doubles crown.
The US duo are the 11th seeds in this year's tournament and take on Ukrainian pair Anhelina Kalinina and Dayana Yastremska in the first round on Wednesday.
Pegula and Gauff have played doubles before, reaching the 2022 French Open final. They lost to French paid Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in three sets.
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Pegula and partner Austin Krajicek also lost the 2023 US Open mixed doubles final.
Jessica reached a world no. 1 ranking in doubles in 2023 and has won seven doubles titles on the WTA Tour.
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