By Tabitha Swaitek
Jessica Pegula, born in Buffalo NY, made it to the finals of the 2024 US Open for Women’s SIngles. Jessica was born in Buffalo New York to her parents Terry and Kim Pegula, both of who are the owners of our favorite sports team: the Buffalo Bills. Jessica started her professional career in 2009, and has been competing in tournaments ever since. This year, Pegula competed in the US Open in Flushing, New York, and this was her first time making it to a grand slam final, so lets take a look at how she got there.
Pegula faced Shelby ROgers, fellow American, in her first round match, and won 6-4, 6-3. Second Round Match, Pegula defeated another fellow American: Sofia Kenin: 7-4 in the first set tie breaker, and then 6-3 in the second set. 3 round, Pegula squared off against Jessica Maneiro, and won 6-3, 6-3. Jessica then went on to the Round of 16, where she beat Diana Shnaider 6-4 6-2. Once Jessie made it to the quarter finals, things got very interesting. For the quarterfinals, the match up was Jessie, against the world number one: Iga Swiatek, who has 5 Grand Slam victories under her belt. To many people’s surprise, Jessie was able to battle this one out and won 6-2, 6-4, placing her in the semi finals for the first time ever at a Grand Slam. Jessica’s semi final match was a humongous battle, with a total of 3 sets. Jessie lost the first set 1-6, but fought her way back to win the next 2 sets 6-4 and 6-2. This placed Jessie for her first time in a Grand Slam final, and to make it even more special, in her home state. Jessie fought as hard as she could in the finals, losing very closely to Aryna Sabalenka 5-7, 5-7. Despite not winning first place, the fact that Jessie was able to make it to the finals for the first time at her age is remarkable. The whole tennis world will be cheering her on and we are excited to see what she will do next.
