Billionaire tennis star wins 6-0 6-0 in an hour as huge payday in sights | Tennis | Sport

Jessica Pegula stormed into the fourth round of the Italian Open on Sunday, wasting no time as she beat Rebeka Masarova 6-0 6-0 in exactly an hour – a double-bagel. Masarova, the world No. 160, had already caused a huge upset in the previous round, beating in-form 25th seed Leylah Fernandez. But she was no match for Pegula, winning just 25 of the 83 points played, with only seven of these coming on the American’s serve.

The No. 5 seed has now won three straight bagel sets in Rome, as she beat Zeynep Sonmez 6-4 6-0 in her opening match. It’s been a great turnaround for Pegula, who lost to Marta Kostyuk in the third round of the recent Madrid Open. Kostyuk went on to lift the trophy there.

After bagelling Sonmez in her first match at the Italian Open, Pegula said: “I haven’t played since I lost in Madrid. I feel like sometimes with a lot of time going by, practising a lot, I stayed over here, didn’t go home, I think you’re a little on edge where your game is at going into a competitive match, playing against someone who already won a round or something like that. Yeah, always tricky.

“But thought I played really solid. Nothing crazy. Had kind of a tough first set and then played some good tennis in the second. Was doing everything pretty well. So just happy I was able to kind of handle maybe the first-match nerves pretty well today.”

After spending just an hour on court against Masarova on Sunday, Pegula still isn’t done. The American is teaming up with Storm Hunter in the doubles draw, and they face Erin Routliffe and Jelena Ostapenko in their opener.

The world No. 5 has not made it this far in the Italian Open singles draw since she got to the quarter-finals on her tournament debut in 2021. Pegula will now face Anastasia Potapova for a place in the last eight.

Potapova has also been one of the most in-form players this clay season. She finished runner-up in Linz, and then got into the Madrid Open as a lucky loser with around half an hour’s notice.

There, she stormed into the semi-finals, shocking world No. 2 Elena Rybakina en route. The Austrian has had to come through qualifying again to reach the main draw in Rome, and took out 11th seed Karolina Muchova on her way to the fourth round.

By reaching the last 16, Pegula has already earned 120 ranking points and £68,796 (€79,510) in prize money, and if she wins the title, she’d earn £913k (€1.055m). Coco Gauff recently called out the 32-year-old for not paying for their gelato when a group of American players got ice cream in Rome, and Pegula filmed their reviews for The Player’s Box Podcast – a podcast she co-hosts with Madison Keys, Desirae Krawczyk, and Jennifer Brady.

“Someone commented and they were like, ‘Did she pay for your gelato?’ I was like, ‘No, she did not!’” Gauff told Tennis Channel. “I think she could have paid for our gelato, and I asked her, like, ‘You’re not gonna pay, Big Mama?’ Especially Jess, like if you know, you know.”

Gauff was referring to the fact that Pegula’s father, Terry, owns the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, and is worth £6.8billion ($9.3billion) according to Forbes. Pegula has been nicknamed ‘Da Fu’ or ‘Big Rich’ by her Chinese fans as a result – something she previously joked about on her podcast.

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