A Jessica Pegula superfan gets a unique item signed—one year later

NEW YORK—Buffalo Bills fans have, painfully but proudly, carried a “this is the year” attitude for decades.

For one Bills jersey-wearer, the long-awaited dream finally came true.

In 2024, Anthony Alfuente made a cross-country trip from San Diego to the US Open with a one-of-a-kind carry-on: a customized blue Bills jersey with the nameplate J PEGULA. The J is for Jessica, the WTA No. 4 whose parents, Terry and Kim, own Buffalo’s National Football League franchise.

Alfuente, who creates bespoke sports jerseys, didn’t craft Pegula’s after she snapped her Grand Slam quarterfinal hex last September, or to wear for her title match with Aryna Sabalenka. He made it before the tournament even started.

Even more surprising: he’s not a Bills fan.

“No Bills connection besides just being a fan of Jessica Pegula,” Alfuente says matter-of-factly on a busy Thursday in Queens.

(“That’s awesome!” her coach, Mark Knowles, wrote over text.)

If there was a Pegula Mafia, Alfuente would be the equivalent of a Zubaz-clad western New Yorker jumping through a table. He follows the 31-year-old as much as he can throughout the season. He’s keenly aware of her endorsement deals and side projects, like Ready 24, Pegula’s skincare company. He heads to Indian Wells to see her play in his time zone, but as a—wait for it—Jersey City, N.J. native, he doesn’t mind traveling back east to Flushing Meadows.

Alfuente tries to keep his fandom in perspective.

“I’m not sure how she likes it being on a Bills jersey,” he says, echoing a thought I’ve also had, “because she’s making her own image for herself. Making her own path, even though she’s connected to Terry and Kim.”

Regardless, he liked the jersey, and he wanted it signed. So on the first day of the ’24 Open, Alfuente seeked out a Pegula practice session, hoping to land her autograph after. He wasn’t the only one. Coming into the tournament off a title defense in Canada and a runner-up finish in Cincinnati, Pegula’s popularity was at an all-time high. Fans surrounded her in search of signatures and selfies.

Like the Bills in the playoffs, Alfuente came up agonizingly short in his quest.

“I missed her by like four signatures last year,” Alfuente says.

But this is the year, an undeterred Alfuente thought, heading into this year’s Open. His friend even sent Pegula a video over social media showing that he tried for an autograph last year, hoping she’d take notice.

On Thursday, around 12 p.m. on Court 4, the stars aligned. Pegula saw the jersey after her practice session and signed it on the “2” of the number 24, meticulously stitched on the back.

It’s the very number Pegula herself told me, around 12 a.m. on Monday in the bowels of Arthur Ashe Stadium, that she’d wear if tennis players had their own jerseys.

“It’s my birthday,” she said. “But I also like even numbers: 2/24/94 is my birthday, so I would probably just pick 24.”

Three days later, Pegula saw it with her own two eyes.

“People ask me, why 24? Twenty-four is her birth day, and for Ready 24,” says Alfuente. “When I customize jerseys, I usually do the birth years, but I was like, I’ll just do the birthday.”

Thursday was Alfuente’s last day at this year’s Open. Pegula hopes hers won’t end a day later; she faces Victoria Azarenka in a compelling third-rounder.

“Creating the jersey last year, and for her not to win it—damn, it would have been so cool,” says Alfuente. “But she’s looking strong this year.”

Spoken like so many Bills fans—and one equally hardcore Pegula fan.