American tennis star Jessica Pegula will be competing in her first Grand Slam final after beating Czechia’s Karolina Muchova in the 2024 U.S. Open women’s semifinal. Though the tournament had been building toward an all-American showdown between the daughters of two billionaire families, Pegula will be playing on Saturday against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who beat 23-year-old rising star Emma Navarro in their semifinal match on Thursday. Navarro’s father, Ben Navarro, who is worth an estimated $1.5 billion, owns Charleston Tennis LLC. Pegula, 30, is the daughter of Terry Pegula, the owner of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, and founder of natural gas company East Resources. Pegula told the New York Post that making it to the final was “a childhood dream.” “It’d mean the world to me [to win], obviously,” Pegula said. “I’m just happy to be in a final. But obviously, I come here to want to win the title.”
