Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus defeats American Jessica Pegula in US Open final to build on father's dream

American tennis player Jessica Pegula lost the women's singles final at the U.S. Open on Saturday to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka won in two sets, both times by a score of 7-5. 

Pegula, as she had all tournament, fought back after falling behind. Sabalenka won the first set then took a 3-0 lead in the second, but Pegula took the next five subsets. Sabalenka won the next four to close out the match.

Sabalenka had won 11 straight matches and 22 of her last 23 sets going into the match. The 26-year-old from Belarus claimed her third Grand Slam title after winning the last two Australian Opens. 

Pegula had won 15 of her past 16 matches, all on hard courts like those used at Flushing Meadows. The lone loss in that span came against Sabalenka in the final of the Cincinnati Open last month. After a surprising run to the final, Pegula lost to Sabalenka again on the material. 

Pegula is a 30-year-old from New York and the No. 6 seed, and she was appearing in the first Grand Slam final of her career. She had been 0-6 in major quarterfinals until eliminating No. 1 Iga Swiatek in that round on Wednesday.

The two players came from very different backgrounds and tennis upbringings.

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Pegula is upstate New York royalty. Her parents, Terry and Kim Pegula, own the NFL's Buffalo Bills and the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. The family has a net worth of over $7.5 billion.

In September 2021, Jessica Pegula appeared alongside her mom on the Bills Pod Squad podcast, where she credited her parents, in part, with her athletic success.

"Dad and I are like oil and water on the tennis court, it does not mix well," she said, laughing. "But he definitely always pushed me to do better. To work hard, always work hard, you can always outwork somebody, all that type of stuff. He’s very old school."

She added that her mom has helped her with her staying fit behind the scenes.

"You were the more off-court, get healthy, like the diet, the recovery, you know, the training and stuff like that."

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Meanwhile, Sabalenka was born in the capital city of Minsk in Belarus. Her father, Sergey Sabalenka, was an ice hockey player in Belarus and introduced her to tennis unintentionally.

"One day, my dad was just driving me somewhere in the car, and on the way he saw tennis courts. So, he took me to the courts. I really liked it and enjoyed it, and that’s how it was. That’s how it started," she said in an interview with TennisMajors.com in August. 

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Her father died in 2019 at age 43 and wasn't able to see her win her first Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024. Still, the titles helped her come close to fulfilling her father's dream.

"I lost my father four years ago," she told reporters afterward. "We had one dream: That before 25, I will win a couple of Grand Slams," she said after winning this year's Australian Open final against Zheng Qinwen.

Sabalenka won her first Grand Slam before age 25 at the 2023 Australian Open and clinched her second before turning 26 this year, as her birthday is in May. 

Sabalenka also lost her boyfriend this year after Konstantin Koltsov, a Belarusian hockey player who spent time with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL, died by suicide in March at age 42.

Now Sabalenka has her third Grand Slam title and looks to add one more at the Australian Open in January.

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