Jessica Pegula (No. 4-USA) has reached the quarter-finals of the Hana Bank Korea Open ($259,303 total prize money) on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour.
Pegula came from behind to defeat Claire Ryu (98th-ranked USA) 2-1 (4-6 6-3 6-0) in the third singles match on the fifth day of the tournament at the Olympic Park Tennis Courts in Songpa-gu, Seoul on Wednesday.
Pegula, the tournament’s top seed, got off to a shaky start, dropping the first set, but took control of the match midway through the second set to close out the two-hour, 27-minute contest.
Pegula’s story is well known, as her mother was born in Seoul and adopted to the United States.
His parents, Terry and Kim Pegula, are two of the most prominent entrepreneurs in the United States.
They currently own a National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL) team, and Forbes estimates their net worth at $5 billion (about $6.7 trillion).
They are so wealthy that in 2014 they were in competition with former US President Donald Trump for the purchase of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
“I am half Korean,” Pegula told Yonhap News Agency when he first competed in the 2019 Korea Open.
Pegula will face Janina Wickmeyer (83rd-Belgium) in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Emina Vektas (116th-ranked USA) came from behind to beat Kimberly Burrell (102nd-ranked Australia) 2-1 (4-6 6-3 6-2) in the quarter-finals.
Pegula-Wickmayer and Vectas-Yuan Yue (128th-ranked China) will now meet in the last four.
Vectas and Yuan Yue will start at 2pm on the 14th, followed by Pegula and Wickmayer.
Earlier in the day, the Korean pair of Choi Ji-hee (NH Bank)-Park So-hyun (Seongnam City Hall), the last remaining doubles pair, lost 0-2 (2-6 1-6) to Irina Kromacheva (Russia)-Wu Fang-hsien (Chinese Taipei) in the quarterfinals. 파워볼게임
