Zhang Shuai expresses her gratitude for Jessica Pegula’s gesture: “She is such a selfless and generous girl”

They may be rivals on the court but off it, there is no shortage of generosity and consideration among Jessica Pegula and her peers.

That was in evidence this week when four players found themselves in a difficult situation after the 2025 ATX Open.

Anna Blinkova and Yuan Yue lifted the doubles title, beating McCartney Kessler and Zhang Shuai 3–6, 6–1, [10–4] in Sunday’s final in Austin, Texas.

Kessler had already been in action earlier that afternoon, losing 7–5, 6–2 to Pegula in the singles final.

Tennis stars face travel dilemma ahead of Indian Wells

After the tournament concluded, the four doubles finalists had another problem to solve - how to get from Austin to Riverside County, California for their next tournament, the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells which starts on Wednesday 5th.

The players had just two days to make the 1,263-mile trip, which included a stopover in Los Angeles. The only other alternative was to fly to Dallas or Houston and take a direct flight from there. Either way, the journey would take at least nine hours and leave them no time to rest and prepare for Indian Wells.

Jessica Pegula came to the rescue, offering Zhang, Yuan, Kessler and Blinkova the use of her private jet to fly straight from Texas to California.

Zhang took to Instagram to share her appreciation and publicly thank Jessica for being so thoughtful

She wrote: “The final day girls discuss how flight to IW, many different ways, some one leave from Austin / Houston/ Dallas, someone might need to transfer at LA in the middle night. Because tough to get flight after the doubles final. at the meantime @jpegula offering everyone who playing at the Sunday final to join her private jet，you know she can leave away right after her singles final , but she is such a selfless and generous girl.

“This message is not to show I took the jet, [I] just wanted to appreciate and transfer the love.”

Obviously it is highly unusual for any tennis player to have their own private jet - regardless of who much prize money they have earned. But Pegula comes from a very wealthy family. Her father Terry, a billionaire businessman and petroleum engineer, owns NFL franchise the Buffalo Bills and NHL team the Buffalo Sabres.

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