Jessica Pegula's parents own the Buffalo Bills, and for years that was the most famous thing about her. Injury-hit years dropped her as low as No. 870 in the world, before she cracked the top 100 in 2019, won her first title at 25 and climbed all the way to a career-high No. 3 in October 2022. She has gathered 12 career titles with a game built on timing rather than power: flat, early-taken groundstrokes off both wings, relentless depth, almost nothing given away.
The major is the missing line. At the 2024 US Open she reached her first Grand Slam final and fell to Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 7-5. The deep runs have kept coming since: another New York semi-final in 2025, then a first Australian Open semi in January 2026, where she saved three match points before Elena Rybakina edged the tiebreak. At 32 she remains a fixture in the last eight of the majors, still chasing the one title that would finish the story.
Thirty-one. That is how many places Qinwen Zheng climbed in this week's WTA rankings, from No. 54 to No. 23. It puts her back inside the top 50 and within three places of the top 20, the biggest climb inside the top 100 this week.
Ranking taleTwo. That is how many Grand Slam titles Elena Rybakina has won in 2026. She beat top seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 5-7 6-2 in the US Open final for her third career major, after Wimbledon in 2022 and this year's Australian Open, and it means every Grand Slam final the pair have played in 2026 has gone Rybakina's way.
Match tale