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Kim, the co-owner and president of the NFL's
Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres, suffered a cardiac
arrest in June and needed CPR from her other daughter Kelly
before paramedics arrived and restored her heartbeat.
Pegula received the news after returning home to Florida from
the French Open, where she lost to eventual champion Iga Swiatek
but rose to number eight in the world.
"Suddenly I went from, 'Let's celebrate top 10 in the world' to,
'Do I need to start thinking about my career after tennis a lot
sooner than I thought?'" Pegula wrote in an essay in The
Players' Tribune.
"I'm 28 and I take pride in being able to handle every situation
thrown at me, but this was a lot."
Pegula said she wanted to share her mother's story after Bills
safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during an NFL game
last month.
Pegula went on to play Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year to
reach a career-high ranking of number three.
"I still wanted to play Wimbledon if I knew my mom was O.K.,"
Pegula wrote. "My dad didn't want me to play, but I knew she
would be upset if I skipped because of her.
"I had to deal with a lot of speculation and questions
surrounding her health, even shutting down rumours that she had
died," added Pegula, who lost to Victoria Azarenka in the
quarter-finals of this year's Australian Open.
"It wasn't necessarily the most fun Wimbledon experience I
remember. I had a few good wins, and I was proud I was able to
go out and compete considering the situation."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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