NEW YORK — Jessica Pegula's husband is such a Stephen Curry fan that he uses the NBA superstar's name for his iPhone.
On Saturday, Curry came to support Pegula during her 7-5, 7-5 loss to Aryna Sabalenka in the U.S. Open final. Curry and his wife, Ayesha, sat behind one of the baselines and talked to Pegula before the match.
Pegula and Stephen Curry had met briefly in Paris at the Olympics. This time, their spouses also got to chat, which was quite the thrill for Taylor Gahagen.
“My husband, his iPhone name is Steph Curry, because he loves Steph Curry," Pegula said. "If you connect to Bluetooth or send him something or AirDrop, it’s ‘Steph Curry’s iPhone.’ So I kind of left early and he texted me and he was so excited. He didn’t want to say anything. I was like, ‘Please tell me you did not tell him about the iPhone thing.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I did.’ "
“I thought that was really cute," Pegula added. "He was like, ‘No, he loved it.’ I was like, ‘Did he? Or did he really think you were kind of crazy?’ I guess he thought it was pretty funny.”
Pegula, a Buffalo native whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, was participating in a major final for the first time at age 30. She’s won 15 of her past 17 matches over the past month; both losses came against Sabalenka.
“Everyone is like, ‘Congrats! Amazing tournament!’ ” Pegula said. “I’m like, ‘Eh, whatever.’ ”
