Navarro beats Arango to win Merida Open, Pegula triumphs
- 04 Mar 2025
Top seed Emma Navarro made light work of Colombian qualifier Emiliana Arango with a crushing 6-0 6-0 victory in the final of the Merida Open on Sunday as the American claimed her second career title.
World number 10 Navarro, who won the WTA 250 Hobart International last year, needed just 55 minutes to lift her first WTA 500 trophy, wrapping up a dominant run in the tournament in which she didn’t a set.
With a strong serve and powerful groundstrokes, Navarro never allowed Arango to reach a break point, while the U.S. Open semi-finalist won 71 percent of points on return.
The 23-year-old became only the fifth player this century to win a WTA final with a 6-0 6-0 scoreline, and the first since Iga Swiatek’s victory over Karolina Pliskova in the 2021 Italian Open.
Arango, who will reach a career-high singles world ranking of 80 on Monday, could not find her stride following a nearly three-hour semi-final battle against fellow qualifier Daria Saville late on Saturday.
The Colombian world number 133 reached Sunday’s final on the back of an 11-match winning streak, including last week’s winning run at the WTA 125 Cancun Open, but had to play three sets in each of her last three matches.
Meanwhile, World number four Jessica Pegula powered to her first WTA title of 2025 on Sunday, beating McCartney Kessler 7-5, 6-2 in an all-American final in Austin, Texas.
Pegula, the top seed, claimed a seventh WTA title and her first since she won the 1000 event in Toronto last year.
That was one of Pegula’s two titles in a 2024 campaign in which she also reached the US Open final.
In Kessler she stopped a fast-rising talent, whose first two WTA finals had yielded a pair of titles -- in Cleveland last August and at Hobart in January.
The 25-year-old arrived in Austin riding high after claiming her first career top-10 player with an upset of Coco Gauff in the second round at Dubai.
But she couldn’ find a way past Pegula, who snapped a three-match losing streak in finals for a confidence-building crown heading into the prestigious hard court tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.
Pegula, the only top-10 player in the draw, dropped just one set all week.
Kessler looked set to change that when she rallied from 0-2 down to take a 4-2 lead in the first set.
But too many unforced errors from Kessler allowed Pegula to get back in front and after Kessler missed a chance to break in the 11th game she was broken in the next as Pegula pocketed the first set.
Kessler broke Pegula to open the second, but Pegula won the next four games to seize control.
Pegula did not have a great tournament at Dubai Open.
Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova stunned Pegula in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(8).
Pegula staged a brief comeback and went ahead 4-2. Stepping up the game, Noskova forced a dramatic tiebreak.
When two set points hung in the balance, she stood resolute, saving them both before sealing the set and the match.
Agencies