World’s richest tennis star adds another £146,000 to incredible net worth at Miami Open | Tennis | Sport

Jessica Pegula picked up a hefty chunk of prize money despite losing to Ekaterina Alexandrova in the Miami Open quarter-finals on Wednesday. Pegula is technically worth billions as she is poised to inherit the wealth of her father, Terry, who is one of the richest businessmen in the United States.

Pegula’s billionaire parents are the owners of two American sports teams, the Buffalo Bills in the NFL and the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL. Her father Terry made his fortune in the oil and gas sectors and boasts an incredible net worth of around £5.4 billion, according to Forbes.

The family fortune technically makes Pegula considerably wealthier than the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic combined. She is set to supplement her riches with another considerable payout at the Miami Open despite falling at the quarter-final stage.

Pegula found herself on the wrong end of an upset defeat at the hands of Alexandrova, who dug deep to earn a hard-fought 3-6 6-4 6-4 victory. The Russian came back from a set down to book her place in the semi-finals, where she will face Florida native Danielle Collins.

Players knocked out in the last eight of this year’s Miami Open will receive £146,294 in prize money, meaning Pegula will be lining her pockets despite failing to win any silverware. She will be hoping to rediscover her best form over the coming weeks before returning to Grand Slam action at the French Open in May.

Pegula recently hit back at her reputation as the world’s richest tennis player, insisting on the Netflix series Break Point that she has never lacked work ethic in spite of her family’s incredible wealth.

“Some people get this image that it’s really easy for me because my dad is very wealthy but that didn’t happen until I was 17 or 18,” said Pegula.

“My dad was probably more hard on me than my mum, the more old-school one pushing me. They gave me a great childhood and instilled a lot of work ethic in me. This definitely got me to this point.

“I hate when people write horrible stuff on social media or online. I don’t think I owe anything to prove those people wrong. I don’t care but, at the same time, there’s definitely really dark moments where I’m like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? I’m just putting myself through the same thing over and over again and it sucks.”