Jessica Pegula will be looking to add to her massive net worth at this week’s Miami Open, which is already large enough to purchase Manchester United and a number of high-profile players. Pegula has earned over £5.6m ($6.9m) during her career, but this pales in comparison to her father’s vast business empire, which is worth a cool £5.5bn ($6.2bn).
Terry Pegula, her 71-year-old father, is estimated to be worth £5.5 billion ($6.7 billion), and the tennis star stands to inherit a sizable portion of this.
And it is more than the reported bids for United of £4.5 billion ($5.5 billion) and £4 billion ($4.8 billion) made by Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jaber Al Thani and Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
The club’s current owners, the highly unpopular Glazer family, have been debating whether to sell the club, with new investment to keep them in charge also a possibility.
While third seed Pegula could easily dispatch the Red Devils, she appears more concerned with advocating for equal pay for women in tennis.
In 2019, Forbes published a list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, and Serena Williams was the only woman to make the top 100 – something Pegula wants to change.
Tennis has made significant progress in the last half-century, gaining equal prize money at all four Grand Slams and leading the way as the women’s sport that produces the world’s most recognized and well-compensated female athletes.
Tennis has the smallest gender pay gap of any sport, but some female players still earn 34.32 percent less than their male counterparts, according to a money.co.uk study published last year.
The world No. 3 and WTA Player’s Council member believes that increased exposure is the key to greater success.
“Obviously, I hope we can keep pushing for equal prize money at all events,” she said. Being more visible on television. I feel like we already tried to do a lot of that with me on player council.
“I believe we’re seeing more of it slowly, especially with United Cup, the response of everyone wanting to see men and women playing on the same court, on the same team.”
The billionaire heiress added that her stance means that women will no longer have to worry about not earning the same as male players in 20 years.
“Obviously, we wouldn’t be here without the previous generation,” she concluded. I believe that the most important thing is to continue to inspire the next generation.
“That is also why we are fighting. On the council, some of us are also older. In 20 years, we’ll be fighting for prize money for people.”
