Kyrgios, Pegula ace Washington Open; Zheng clinches maiden WTA title
Jessica Pegula poses with the trophy and her dog Maddie after defeating Camila Giorgi in the final at the Citi Open in Washington on Sunday. Associated Press
The 24-year-old Aussie, who struggled through the opening set, claimed the $365,390 top prize and his sixth career ATP crown at the US Open tuneup event.
“This is probably my best memory of a final,” Kyrgios said. “I left it all on the court.” Kyrgios, 5-1 this year against top-10 rivals, won his second title of the season after Acapulco in March and will jump 25 positions to 27th in Monday’s new rankings, his first top-30 appearance in 43 weeks.
“This has been one of the greatest weeks of my life. I’ve made massive strides,” Kyrgios said.
Known for his fiery temperament and inconsistency, Kyrgios was resilient all week, breaking racquets but holding his emotions together -- “super proud” of his composure.
“In the past six months, it’s crazy to think how much I’ve been able to turn it around,” Kyrgios said. “I’m working hard to be better as a player and a person. “I lost faith that I could still have weeks like this and be happy. I’ve got to thank (my family) for not losing faith.
“I just wanted to clean myself up and have a healthy attitude. I showed what I can do this week.”
While saying his best memory of the week was “how professional I was off the court,” Kyrgios also noted, “I’ve got a long way to go.”
American Jessica Pegula captured her first WTA singles title by ripping Italy’s Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-2 in the Washington women’s final.
The 25-year-old daughter of NFL Buffalo Bills owner and natural gas magnate Terry Pegula took a $43,000 top prize.
Kyrgios won a match that featured no break points or deuces after 94 minutes with back-to-back aces, the last his tournament-best 110th of the week.
Medvedev, 23, was broken only twice this week but lost his lone sets to Kyrgios. He’ll equal his career-best ranking of ninth on Monday.
“I know how well Nick can play when he wants to play. This week, I think he wanted to play and it was tough,” Medvedev said.
“He was determined and it seemed like he wants to win. And that’s what we don’t see all the time.”
Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Zheng Saisai knocked off her fourth seeded opponent of the week to capture her first career WTA title with a straight sets win over Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the San Jose WTA tournament on Sunday.
The unseeded Zheng, who also beat Sabalenka in their only other career meeting, used a solid serving performance to beat the second seed from Belarus 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
Zheng said the San Jose tournament had special meaning for her even before she won on Sunday.
“Five years ago I got my first WTA singles win here and now I win my first WTA title here,” she said..
Zheng clinched the victory in the second set tiebreaker when Sabalenka doubled faulted on the first championship point.
Sabalenka also double faulted to get to championship point as she finished with eight double faults compared to just five for Zheng.
After the 25-year-old Zheng downed eighth-seeded American Danielle Collins, she beat fourth-seeded US teen Amanda Anisimova in a three-set quarter-final marathon. In the semis, Zheng ousted No.7 seed Maria Sakkari in straight sets.
Zheng, who was not broken in the one hour, 45 minute match, won 72 percent of her first serve points compared to 52 percent for Sabalenka.
“She played great tennis,” Sabalenka said of Zheng.
Sabalenka, 21, was playing in her first final since winning the Shenzhen Open in China in January.
She lost in the first round of qualifying at this event last year but then went on a run that saw her shoot from 36th in the world to her current No. 9 ranking after her loss in the San Jose WTA final, but she moves ahead of Serena Williams who drops to 10. Zheng was the week’s biggest mover, climbing 17 places to 38.
Roland Garros winner Ashleigh Barty is still number one ahead of Naomi Osaka as the players head to Montreal where a lot of points are at stake.
Tsitsipas meanwhile has for the first time climbed into the top five of the latest ATP rankings.
Agence France-Presse
