And following Pegula’s disappointment in New York, Canadian tennis star Bouchard couldn’t resist the opportunity to reply to a social media post about the 30-year-old as she wrote: “Money can’t buy a US Open final lol”.
The post Bouchard was replying to when she made her comment was penned by @backhandology_, who wrote: “I don’t get why Jessica Pegula gets hated because she is ‘the daughter of’ and comes from a wealthy family.
“She seems like a down to earth and fun person and worked her a** off to climb in the rankings. Just like EVERY PLAYER. You can’t buy talent and work ethic.”
Pegula had never progressed beyond the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam singles event ahead of this year, although she had reached the final of the French Open and the semi-finals of the Australian Open in doubles alongside Coco Gauff.
But Pegula exhibited her talents time and time again at Flushing Meadows as she dropped just one set on her way to the final.
And in the immediate aftermath of her defeat to Sabalenka she said: “I’m just annoyed I lost right now and everyone is like, ‘Congrats, amazing tournament’. I’m like, ‘Eh, whatever’.
“I am sure once I decompress I will be a little bit more appreciative and see all of that at some point. I should probably do that at some point. But it has been a couple of crazy days so hopefully I will get some time after this to kind of just relax and just be able to look back at what I have been able to do the last month.
“I think for sure I will take a lot of confidence from this in maybe like an hour or two because like I said, I’m kind of annoyed.
“Not even annoyed about losing the tournament. I think it’s more I just wanted to win the match. Now there are things that are just in my head that I feel I should have done better and stuff like that.”
