The future of US women’s tennis is looking safe in the hands of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, but while the former has enjoyed a breakthrough season that has brought her the first Grand Slam of her career, she still has quite some way to go before she is a wealthy as her doubles playing partner.
Teenager Gauff leapfrogged Pegula into third place in the world rankings when the 19-year-old completed a stunning come-from-behind victory against world No. 1 Aryna Sabelanka to win the US Open at Flushing Meadows in September.
The victory was the sixth singles title of Gauff’s career and the fourth of an outstanding season that has yielded 49 wins and 14 defeats. Pegula, who is now the world No. 5, has two titles to her name this season and four overall as the wait goes on for her elusive first gram slam triumph.
The meteoric rise of Gauff has swelled her bank balance considerably. Her prize money earnings career-to-date at around £9.48m ($11,526,713). That is already more than Pegula, who has made around £8.83m ($10,736,246) in prize money since the start of her career, having played on tour for nine years longer than her peer.
This remarkable statistic illustrates just how well Gauff has done in her embryotic career, which saw her produce a 16-match winning streak this season that only ended at the China Open last month when she was beaten by World No. 2 Iga Swiatek.
But while Gauff is already steaming ahead on the WTA tour circuit, she will have quite some way to go before she can catch up with Pegula when it comes to overall wealth.
The 29-year-old is the daughter of American billionaire Terry Pegula, who owns NFL franchise the Buffalo Bills with his wife Kim and also owns the NHL team the Buffalo Sabres.
Terry Pegula is worth an estimated £5.3billion ($6.7billion) according to Forbes, making him one of the wealthiest businessmen in America. That’s great news for daughter Jessica, who stands to inherit at least $1.5 billion of her father’s fortune, making her comfortably the richest tennis player on the planet.
Not wanting to be overly reliant on her guaranteed wealth, Pegula has made plenty of money for herself from tennis and that includes a successful doubles partnership with Gauff.
The duo are currently ranked No. 1 in the world and have two doubles titles to their name this season alone.
They were back in action at the WTA Finals in Cancun on Sunday but suffered a 7-6, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski in their first group-stage match.
