Jessica Pegula is a role model: “So many people dismissed her out the gate as some rich girl trying to buy her way in”

It is impossible for the modern-day player to please everyone. Through no fault of her own, Jessica Pegula may be the finest example of that.

A daughter of billionaires, Pegula’s privileged background has always a target for critics, despite her forging an exceptional career at the highest level of an international sport. She regularly plays doubles, a discipline often cited as beneath top singles players. She competes for her country nearly any chance she gets. On the court, she’s more grind than grace. Off of it, she connects with fans, both in person and over social media, in an earnest and approachable manner—you’d think she’s a journeywoman, rather than an elite pro. It is all part of Pegula’s unique charm.

Regardless, she will never be able to shake many pre-conceived notions, both inside and outside the tennis world.

Luke Russert does not share those opinions.

“I think she’s incredibly resilient,” Russert, host and Creative Director of MSNBC Live, wrote to me over email. “So many people dismissed her out the gate as some rich girl trying to buy her way in. Which on its grounds is a flawed and foolish argument. You can have the best coaching in the world; your coach can’t return a 120 mph serve in the US Open final.”

👉👉👉 In a year filled with change and disruption, the 30-year-old is right where she wants to be. Read our full feature on Jessica Pegula here.

Russert would know, having witnessed part of Pegula’s run to this year’s US Open final. After turning the tables on Swiatek in a cathartic, drought-ending quarterfinal triumph, Pegula faced Karolina Muchova. The Czech, a former runner-up at Roland Garros, was playing her second consecutive US Open semifinal, but the match was a classic letdown spot for Pegula. Muchova played her role perfectly, winning eight of the first nine games.

“She made me look like a beginner,” Pegula said later that night. “I was about to burst into tears because it was so embarrassing.”

But as she did in the quarterfinals, Pegula flipped the narrative. This time, Pegula was the one who recovered from a large deficit in a spotlight setting. She narrowly avoided falling behind a set and two breaks—then, rather quickly, took command of the match. She won the third set 6-2 to become the oldest American to reach her first Grand Slam singles final. All to the delight of Russert and the pro-Pegula crowd inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“There were a lot of [Buffalo Bills quarterback] Josh Allen jerseys in the stands,” recalls Russert. “When I was walking the concourse I got a lot of ‘Go Bills!’ as I had a Pegula shirt and Bills hat on.

I don’t know many billionaire team owners that would flag down some random fans and invite them to dinner on their yacht. But that’s the kind of person Kim Pegula is, and I think those values were passed onto Jessica. Luke Russert

“I chatted up a couple in the beer line who lived in NYC but were originally from Tonawanda; they told me they weren’t big tennis fans, but wanted to support Jessica because of the Buffalo connection. I think that speaks to the loyalty and fandom of Buffalo—it’s incredibly strong.”

While Pegula would lose to Sabalenka in a highly competitive, two-set final, her US Open can only be seen as a success. A giant weight has been lifted off her shoulders; she is the rare late-bloomer who is entering a second (third?) phase of her career.

“Jess has persevered and become a star of women’s tennis,” Russert writes. “She continues to be self-deprecating, calm, cool and collected. She really is a role model for maintaining composure at the highest levels—professionally and personally. That counts for a lot these days, when most everyone has a grievance that is magnified on social media.

“It’s impressive she has never grown bitter, especially after what happened with her mom.”

Russert, unfortunately, knows something about this, too. His father, Tim, moderated NBC’s Meet the Press for more than 16 years—ending each episode with a hopeful “Go Bills.” The young Russert emerged from the womb in Zubaz, a Bills fan from day one.

Luke attended the Bills’ last two unsuccessful Super Bowl appearances as a youngster, but despite so much heartbreak, his fandom, like that of many others from Western New York, has never wavered.

“The Bills have had a tortured history, losing four straight Super Bowls, a long playoff drought (17 years) and some of the most unexplainable losses in sports history—but I wouldn’t trade them for anything,” he says. “It’s made me appreciate the connective tissue that comes from sports.

“No other team in professional sports personifies the identity of their city more than the Bills in Buffalo. It’s like religion, and I’m a weekly congregant.”

In 2008, a decade before Allen would become his own kind of spiritual Sunday leader in Buffalo, Tim Russert suffered a heart attack in NBC News’ Washington bureau. He died at 58.

Fourteen years later, Jessica Pegula’s mother, Kim, suffered cardiac arrest while asleep. She received CPR from her daughter, Kelly, who serendipitously became certified in the procedure just a few months earlier.

Jessica outlined the entire ordeal in a stirring piece for The Players’ Tribune. “My mom is working hard in her recovery, she is improving, but where she ends up is still unknown,” Pegula wrote in February 2023. Kim is still recovering, and this summer visited Bills training camp, but her life has unquestionably been changed since the incident.

When I asked Russert if he had ever met Jess, or the Pegula family, he shared a story about Kim.

“A few years ago, Kim took the wives of some of the front-office staff and coaches of the [Buffalo] Sabres and Bills to Nantucket and put them up on her yacht for a girls’ trip. She heard I was on the island and invited me to drinks on the boat. I showed up and Kim insisted I stay for dinner.

“So I sit at a table and next to me is this nice older couple from Buffalo. I asked how they knew Kim; they go, ‘We don’t know Kim personally. We’re just here for a two-night visit, she saw us on the bike trail this morning wearing Bills gear, flagged us down and invited us.

“I don’t know many billionaire team owners that would flag down some random fans and invite them to dinner on their yacht. But that’s the kind of person Kim Pegula is, and I think those values were passed onto Jessica.”