Jessica Pegula wins 2022 Guadalajara Open

Jessica Pegula (David Iliff, Wikimedia Commons)

Jessica Pegula of Buffalo, New York won the biggest tennis tournament of her career on Sunday. The 24-year-old, who is also know as the daughter of billionaires Terry and Kim Pegula (owners of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League and the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League), won her second career WTA Tournament on Sunday, but first at the WTA 1000 series level.

In the final of the Guadalajara Open in Mexico, Pegula, the third seed, defeated Maria Sakkari of Greece, the fourth seed, 6-2, 6-3. A major reason for Pegula’s win came down to the first serve. Pegula won 79% of the points on her first serve, while Sakkari only won 49% of the points on her first serve. Pegula was also reading Sakkari’s serve very well, as she broke Sakkari in five of eight break point opportunities.  Even though Pegula was ranked third in Guadalajara, she still has not reached a Grand Slam semifinal, something Sakkari has accomplished twice. Sakkari reached the semifinals of the French Open and United States Open in 2021.

In Guadalajara this past week, Pegula was given a first round bye by being the number three seed and then beat four grand slam champions en route to the final. She then defeated Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, the Wimbledon champion, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 in round two, 2019 United States Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada 6-4, 6-4 in round three, 2017 United States Open champion Sloane Stephens of the United States 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals and two-time Australian Open champion Viktoria Azarenka of Belarus 7-6, 6-1 in the semifinals.

This was the second straight year Guadalajara hosted a significant WTA tennis tournament in the latter part of the year. In 2021, Guadalajara won the WTA Finals, a tournament won by Garbine Muguruza of Spain.

Pegula meanwhile won her first WTA tournament in 2019. She defeated Camilia Giorgi of Italy 6-2, 6-2 in the final of Washington.

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