Latest news with #TerryPegula
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Billionaire American tennis heiress and daughter of NFL owner Jessica Pegula suffers Wimbledon humiliation
American tennis star Jessica Pegula was on the wrong end of another major upset after being dumped out in the first round of Wimbledon by Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto. Pegula, who was also sent packing at the French Open by world No 361 Lois Boisson last month, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by the unseeded 24-year-old. The daughter of billionaire NFL owner Terry Pegula is enduring a disappointing 2025 so far after making it to her first Grand Slam final at the US Open last year, having also slipped out of the Australian Open in the third round.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Billionaire American tennis heiress Jessica Pegula refuses to stay in same hotel as her Wimbledon rivals
Jessica Pegula finds tournament hotels 'mentally draining' - and she'll be finding her own accommodations for Wimbledon. The world No. 3 is the daughter of oil and gas mogul Terry Pegula, who is worth $7.6billion according to Forbes. Terry and his wife Kim also bought the NFL's Buffalo Bills in 2014. And Pegula plans to find her own hotel in SW19 as she aims for her best finish at the tournament. 'It's such a big part of our lives, and as I've gotten older, a good hotel has become more of a priority,' she said, via 'When you're 20 and you're just starting to travel, you're not complaining that much: you're more out there grinding and embracing life on tour. Once you hit 30 and kind of need a better pillow, that stuff honestly becomes really important!' She later continued: 'Oh my gosh, being away from everyone else is a massive thing for me... I just felt like, 'I can't do [player hotels] anymore!' 'When you're staying at a tournament hotel, I feel like it's so mentally draining. It's not like anyone is a problem. But if you were going to work with someone, you wouldn't necessarily want to eat breakfast with them, practice with them, be in the gym, have lunch, go to the locker room and the physio room with them, and then see them in all the elevators and the hallways. 'I don't think people realize that shouldn't happen, not with the people you're working and competing with every single week. We play pretty much every week together, and so, all of that together, you're ready to lose it!' Pegula added that she was in a 'better mood' when staying in a nice hotel, and she recently arranged her own accommodations for the French Open. In fairness, she's certainly not the only player to do so. The 31-year-old, whose father Terry sold most of his natural gas company for $4.7billion in 2010 according to Bloomberg, has previously taken aim at the opinions surrounding her family's wealth. 'It's just kind of funny when people assume that I fly private everywhere, or that I have a chauffeur driving me around since I was five,' she told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview last summer. 'I'm like, what? Or I have a butler... that's not how it works.' Pegula stressed during the conversation that her family's extreme wealth didn't come until she was already a teenager. 'People jump to these conclusions that are so over the top. I grew up pretty normal, and a lot of that [her family becoming billionaires] didn't happen to me until I was already older and playing. 'My goal since I was six or seven was to be number one in the world. So that was before a lot of this other stuff happened. I mean, before that, I was just a normal kid growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , taking lessons after school. So I think that's just the kind of difference that maybe the casual fan kind of doesn't grasp as well.' Pegula's best finish at Wimbledon came in 2023, when she made the quarterfinals but suffered a painstaking loss to eventual tournament winner Marketa Vondrousova. She reached the finals of the US Open last summer but has yet to capture a Grand Slam title.
New York Times
25-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
The Sabres have a historic playoff drought. Here are 3 leadership lessons from their struggles
Editor's Note: This story is a part of Peak, The Athletic's desk covering leadership, personal development and success through the lens of sports. Follow Peak here. It's natural to try to learn from the winners. We study John Wooden's pyramid of success to see if anything in there can offer a glimpse at how Wooden helped UCLA's men's basketball team win 10 national championships. The sports section of the bookstore is filled with titles authored by the greatest achievers. Advertisement But what if we could also learn from those who have failed? If it's true that you either win or you learn, those who lose should have plenty of lessons to share. Over the last 14 seasons, the Buffalo Sabres have failed to reach the NHL playoffs. No team in the history of the NHL has gone through a playoff drought this long. And there are plenty of lessons we can extract from the Sabres' decade-plus of struggling. During that time, the Sabres have had seven coaches and four general managers. Some have come closer than others to getting the Sabres back to the playoffs, but all have come up short for different reasons. Based on The Athletic's story about Terry Pegula's ownership, Kevyn Adams' rise to general manager and the 'hamster wheel' of the Sabres' playoff drought, here are three key leadership lessons we can learn from the Sabres' struggles. Early in his ownership, Pegula was a willing spender. He boldly declared there would be no financial mandates on the Sabres' hockey operation. He spent freely on big-name free agents such as Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino. He poured money into the scouting staff and travel budgets. But he quickly found out that spending your way to a winner has its limits. The Sabres missed the playoffs in his first two seasons as owner, and that's when he tried to take another shortcut. Starting in 2013, the Sabres began a two-season tank toward the bottom of the NHL standings. Then-general manager Darcy Regier warned fans that there would be some 'suffering' on the way to the team's ultimate goal of being Stanley Cup champions. Buffalo stripped the roster of aging veterans in an effort to get the highest draft pick possible. In the process, Regier was fired, and so was coach Ron Rolston. Buffalo got the No. 2 pick in consecutive drafts, in 2014 and 2015, selecting Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel. The two were supposed to be franchise cornerstones who would lead the Sabres back to being a Stanley Cup contender. Advertisement The problem is that the Sabres then hit fast forward again, swinging aggressive trades under new general manager Tim Murray that created a volatile environment around their two top draft picks. By tanking, the Sabres wiped out their culture. Eichel became the captain of the team before he was fully ready for the role. Too much of the pressure to get Buffalo back to the playoffs was squarely on Eichel and Reinhart. 'Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart were able to run the show there at a young age when they hadn't won anything,' one Sabres scout from that era said. The crux of the most recent plan under Adams is to build the Sabres through drafting and developing their own talent. But the problem is that so many players have been inserted into big roles or signed to big contracts before fully earning them. Mattias Samuelsson got a seven-year contract worth more than $4 million per season after just 54 games. Owen Power got a seven-year deal worth more than $8 million per year after one full NHL season. The Sabres tried to make Devon Levi their starting goalie as a rookie in 2023-24 before he had ever played a game in the AHL. The list goes on. The lesson: It's hard to create a culture of competition and accountability when young players are thrust into critical roles before they're ready. 'Make them earn the right to be a Buffalo Sabre,' one former scout said. 'Don't just give it to them.' During this playoff drought, the Sabres have made 10 top-10 draft picks. They've picked first twice and second twice. Eichel and Reinhart have both won the Stanley Cup with other franchises. Both finished in the top five of the voting this season for the Selke Trophy, awarded to the league's best defensive forward. Linus Ullmark, drafted by the Sabres, won a Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender after leaving Buffalo. Five of the last six Stanley Cup champions have had drought-era Sabres players on their roster. There are multiple former Sabres on the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, the two Stanley Cup finalists this year. Advertisement Last season, when asked about the Panthers' culture and why players thrive in it, Reinhart pointed to 'a very clear sense of direction' that starts with the coaching staff and the team's core players. That's something that's been lacking in Buffalo. There is no single reason players find more success once they leave the Sabres, but the lesson is that environment matters. Culture matters. You need to have the patience and vision to set players up for success. Growth, both personal and professional, is not guaranteed just because of talent. And development is rarely a straight line. The Sabres haven't stuck to one single plan for long enough, and that's part of why they've been stuck on the hamster wheel. When the Sabres hired Adams as general manager in 2020, they did so without running a search or interviewing other candidates. They then had the first-time general manager fire more than 20 people and take over a front office with no assistant general managers. Over the last five years, Adams has slowly built out a bigger staff that is more in line with other NHL teams, including the recent hires of Jarmo Kekäläinen as senior adviser and Eric Staal as special assistant to the general manager. But when Pegula hired Adams, he did so because he wanted to be heard. Prioritizing that over finding the right candidate and surrounding him with an experienced staff hurt both Adams and the team, as he's gone through the predictable ups and downs as an inexperienced general manager. The lesson is that leaders should always make an effort to surround themselves with people who are smart and experienced enough to challenge them. That competition and accountability are how you grow individually and as an organization. You could also extend this to Buffalo's roster, which has been among the youngest in the NHL each of the last three seasons. How are young players supposed to learn about winning or how to build a culture when so few players in the locker room have experienced what that looks like in the NHL? Advertisement In December 2024, while the Sabres were in the early stages of what would become a 13-game winless streak, Adams delivered a quote that has come to haunt him. After saying that Buffalo was not a destination city for outside free agents, Adams said the Sabres would need to become a perennial playoff team to change that narrative. He then added, 'We don't have palm trees. We have taxes in New York. Those are real. Those are things you deal with.' He wasn't wrong when he said it, but the timing of the comment angered an already frustrated fan base. It was a comment Adams needed to address with the team. The players and others had preached accountability all offseason, and that comment felt like excuse-making to a fan base that had heard one too many excuses during the postseason drought. Part of the job of any leader is effective messaging. Pegula has not answered questions about the Sabres since 2020, when he said the goal of the organization was to be 'effective, efficient and economic.' Since then, Adams has operated with a smaller budget than many NHL teams and been the one to answer for the Sabres' shortcomings. There have been times when he's let his words get ahead of his actions. After the Sabres came up one point short of the postseason in 2022-23, Adams said the team's window was open. But Adams wasn't aggressive in free agency, left cap space on the table and again put out one of the youngest rosters in the league. When the team underperformed based on expectations, it was coach Don Granato who took the fall, with Adams pointing to 'accountability' as a key issue with his team. When Adams and Pegula hired Lindy Ruff for his second stint as the franchise's head coach, the message became that the Sabres were in a 'win-now' situation. The roster changed more than it did the previous season, but cap space was still left unspent, and the Sabres were still among the youngest teams in the league. The outside expectation of a slow and patient rebuild became warped by inconsistent messaging. That's how you end up with way more 'suffering' than Regier intended when he uttered that now-infamous line. (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo: Tony Ding / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
Fox News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
American tennis star Jessica Pegula slams 'absolutely crazy' comments after losing French Open match
American tennis star Jessica Pegula may have suffered a tough French Open exit against wild-card entry Loïs Boisson but she was still taking swings at critics afterward. Boisson, a French wild-card entry for the Grand Slam tournament, defeated Pegula in the fourth round of the tournament. Pegula revealed afterward she received death threats from "delusional" bettors upset over the loss to the relatively unknown tennis star. "These (bettors) are insane and delusional," she wrote on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, via the New York Post. "And I don't allow dms and try to remember when to shut my comments off during tournament weeks but they always find a way to my timeline. This stuff has never really bothered me much but does any other sport deal with this to our level? I'd love to know because it seems to be (predominantly) tennis?? It's so disturbing." The daughter of Terry and Kim Pegula, who own the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, also shared screenshots of commenters who ridiculed her for the loss. Some called her "trash" while others said she should just enjoy being the daughter of billionaires. There were other nasty comments as well. "You sold this match on purpose," one person wrote. "Can't wait until Karma spends the block back on you. Hopefully your first born child will be a still birth." Pegula added that "every person" on the Women's Tennis Association deals with some type of awful remark. "I get told my family should get cancer and die from people here on a regular basis. Absolutely crazy," she added. "I've seen stories of comments/threats/stalking making headlines in other sports…well news flash tennis I can guarantee it's 100 times worse. The comments are nonstop for us. Win or lose – it's whatever they bet on. "I actually had threats come through the NHL that they were worried about and sent to me. My response was, 'oh that's it? I get those all the time' that is so messed up that that is my response. Normalizing death threats!" Pegula added that staying off social media was unavoidable because most of their sponsorship deals involve posting on their platforms. Pro tennis players Arthur Bouquier and Caroline Garcia also shared threats they've received in recent years. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Daily Mail
04-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
US tennis star Jessica Pegula reveals disturbing fan abuse and death threats after shock French Open exit
Jessica Pegula has revealed that her shock French Open exit was met with disturbing online abuse from bettors - and she called out those 'insane people' on Wednesday. World No. 3 Pegula was eliminated at Roland-Garros in the fourth round, as wild card Lois Boisson beat her 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. And last year's US Open finalist received some horrific comments afterwards, as she posted a thread on her Instagram story detailing what she'd been subjected to. In her Instagram comments - under a post of Pegula mourning the loss of her dog, no less - one fan said that 'Karma' would come for her, and hoped that her first-born child would be a stillbirth. Under the same post, another person said that 'Tucker [her dog] is better off without this loser,' while another comment on the website said: 'Somewhere in the world, there is a tree that's working really hard to produce the Oxygen you waste.' Another commenter posted a picture of a playing card with the words 'You Die' on it. Another accused her of losing on purpose and hoped she delivered a still-born child Pegula, the son of billionaire and Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, was also called 'useless' by another fan. 'Just quit playing tennis and enjoy your father's money! You are literally the most useless top 10 player ever,' they said. After sharing screenshots of the various instances of abuse, Pegula called the bettors 'insane and delusional.' '... And I don't allow dms and try to remember when to shut my comments off during tournament weeks but they always find a way to my timeline. This stuff has never really bothered me much but does any other sport deal with this to our level? I'd love to know because it seems to be predominately tennis?? It's so disturbing. 'Every person on tour deals with it,' she continued. 'It's so bad. Those are just really small snippets. I get told my family should get cancer and die from people on here on a regular basis. Absolutely crazy.' Pegula fell to Lois Boisson after taking the first set of the match at Roland-Garros She continued: 'I've seen stories of comments/threats/stalking making headlines in other sports... well news flash I can guarantee it's 100 times worse. These comments are nonstop for us. Win or lose - it's whatever they bet on.' After revealing that she had also been notified by the NHL of threats against her (her father owns the Buffalo Sabres as well), she said that such abuse wasn't okay - even if it has 'never really gotten to me.' 'When fans get on us as athletes to be tougher and stronger etc etc. just realize you prob don't have people sending you death threats every day and hoping your family dies and you give birth to a still born child,' she said. Pegula added that it wasn't realistic for tennis players to stay off of social media as they need to be on there to post sponsorships.
