World’s richest tennis star could buy Man Utd and still have healthy bank balance | Tennis | Sport

Jessica Pegula will be looking to add to her mega net worth at this week’s Miami Open – which is already enough to buy Manchester United and some high-profile players. Pegula has earned over £5.6m ($6.9m) during the course of her career, but this is nothing in comparison to the vast business empire controlled by her father, who is worth a cool £5.5bn ($6.2bn).

Her 71-year-old dad, Terry Pegula, has an estimated worth of £5.5bn ($6.7bn) and the tennis star stands to inherit a considerable amount of this.

And that sum is more than the reported bids of £4.5bn ($5.5bn) and £4bn ($4.8bn) made by Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jaber Al Thani and Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe for United.

Highly unpopular current owners, the Glazer family, have been debating whether to sell the club, with fresh investment to keep them at the helm also a possibility.

But while third seed Pegula could comfortably take the Red Devils off their hands, she seems more focused on pushing for equal pay for women in tennis.

In 2019, Forbes published a list of the highest-paid athletes in the world and Serena Williams was the only woman to make it into the top 100 – something that Pegula wants to see the end of.

Tennis has made significant strides in the last half-century, gaining equal prize money at all four Grand Slams and leading the way as the women’s sport that produces the most recognised and well-compensated female athletes in the world.

Tennis has the smallest gender pay gap in sports, but some women players still earn some 34.32 per cent less than their male counterparts, according to a study by money.co.uk last year.

The world No 3, who is a member of the WTA Player’s Council, believes that increased exposure is the key to more success.

She said: “I hope obviously we can keep pushing for equal prize money at all events. Being on TV more. I feel like as far as me being on player council, we already tried to do a lot of that.

“I think we’re starting to see slowly, more of it, especially with United Cup, the response of everyone wanting to see men and women playing on the same court, on the same team.”

The billionaire heiress added her stance means that women in 20 years won’t have to go through to worry about not earning the same as male players.

She concluded: “Obviously, without the past generation, we wouldn’t be here, as well. I think it’s always just to keep inspiring each generation because those are the next people.

“That’s also who we’re fighting for. Some of us are older, as well, on the council. We’re fighting for prize money for people in 20 years.”