Emma Raducanu will take on Jessica Pegula in the Miami Open quarter-finals on Wednesday, with her American opponent boasting an astonishing net worth thanks to her family’s business pursuits
Emma Raducanu’s opponent in the Miami Open quarter-final on Wednesday is already set for life with an astonishing net worth and hefty property portfolio that she is set to inherit. While the eventual winner in Miami will pocket a tidy £870,483 ($1,124,380), such a chunk of change will arguably make very little difference to Jessica Pegula.
The 31-year-old reached the US Open final last year and has amassed career earnings of £13million due to her skills on the court. Yet her family boasts an estimated net worth of £5.8billion, according to Forbes.
Being the daughter of oil and gas tycoon Terry Pegula means she is set to one day inherit a chuck of the eye-watering amount of money, a figure she will even top up should she beat Raducanu this week.
That will likely include one of the family’s luxury homes in Boca Raton, Florida, which they reportedly purchased for $6.5m (£5m) in 2010. Known as ‘Camelot Farms’, the expansive property sits on a stunning 194-acre community of horse farms.
That makes Pegula’s future abode the size of 121 football pitches, with the average pitch coming in at 1.6 acres. It’s said to be ideal for the Pegulas’ equestrian pursuits.
The 14,000-square-foot property also features eight bedrooms, an outdoor pool, and a spa. Realtor reports that the family has also owned a four-bedroom house nearby since 2014, with the $585k (£452k) property branded as “the equestrian’s dream” due to its four-stall horse barn.
Terry Pegula is known to have invested a significant portion of his fortune in sports franchises, including the Buffalo Bills, which he purchased for a staggering $1.2bn (£930m) in 2014. It’s believed he outbid both President Donald Trump and rock legend Jon Bon Jovi in what was the most expensive takeover in NFL history at the time.
The 73-year-old now controls the Pegula Sports and Entertainment company, which owns the NHL franchise Buffalo Sabres following a $189m (£146m) deal in 2011, among other teams. Aside from their sporting interests, the Pegula family has invested heavily in properties across the US.
In New York, her parents have owned a £1.9m seven-bedroom space in East Aurora since 2018 and bought an even more expensive lodge in the Adirondacks from pop icon Shania Twain in the 1990s. The Pegulas also paid $3.25m (£2.5m) for a waterfront property known as Sunbeam Lodge.
While the world No. 4 often faces questions about her comfortable upbringing, she insists her lifestyle is not reflective of her family’s wealth. “People think I have a butler, that I get chauffeured around, that I have a private limo, that I fly private everywhere. I’m definitely not like that,” she said.
Meanwhile, Raducanu is playing her best tennis for some time and will be hopeful she can put a dent in Pegula’s career earnings when they face off this week.
After defeating 17th seed Amanda Anismova, she will now head into what is her first WTA 1,000 quarter-final. It is also the first time since her US Open triumph in 2021 that Raducanu has won four WTA main-draw matches in a row, and she has opened up on rediscovering her form.
“The biggest thing I’m proud of is just finding the competitive spirit and being there for every ball and drawing that out of myself,” Raducanu said. “I think that’s kind of been missing in the last few months and even a few years at times.”