EMMA RADUCANU will face the “world’s richest tennis star” in the next round of the Miami Open after her straight sets win over Amanda Anisimova on Monday.
Raducanu, 22, is looking on hot form in the States and has booked herself a spot in the quarter-finals against world No.4 Jessica Pegula as a result.
Pegula may be the fourth best player in the world, but she’s number one when it comes to bank balance.
The American star, who has seven career titles, has been labelled as the “world’s richest tennis star” after it was revealed that her family is worth £7.7BILLION.
Pegula’s father Terry, 73, owns NFL giants the Buffalo Bills, as well as NHL franchise the Buffalo Sabres.
While Pegula herself has earned in excess of £13.5MILLION from prize money during her time on tour.
She’s not shy to share her wealth either, with the 31-year-old generously taking four fellow tennis stars on her private jet earlier this month.
The 2024 US Open finalist offered a seat on her jet to McCartney Kessler, Zhang Shuai, Anna Blinkova and Yuan Yue after the ATX Open in Texas.
Pegula will be favourite to beat Raducanu given the 56 place swing between the pair in the world rankings at the moment.
But it may not be as simple as that, with Raducanu returning to form in recent weeks.
While the pair also have an even record against one another in their two previous meetings, with Pegula winning in straight sets on the hard courts of Cincinnati in 2022, and Raducanu coming out on top on grass at Eastbourne last year.
Raducanu, who axed her most recent coach after just ONE match last week, has said she has found her “competitive spirit” again after getting the better of world No.17 Anismova on Monday.
She said: “The biggest thing I’m proud of is just finding the competitive spirit and being there for every ball and drawing that out of myself.
“I think that’s kind of been missing in the last few months and even a few years at times.
“Just feeling a lot of hunger, feeling on the court competitive, wanting to run down every ball, and that’s the biggest win I would say from this week.
“I’m walking on to the court knowing that I’m going to be there for every point, every ball. So far that’s really worked.
“Also, I think on the match court now I’m just thinking less, which is probably a good thing, and trying to just let my creativity come out because I think that’s when I’m playing my best tennis.”
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