The World No.3 Jessica Pegula claimed her third career title and second WTA 1000 crown after overpowering No.18 Liudmila Samsonova 6-1, 6-0 in the final of the Canadian Open. Pegula defeated Samsonova in the final to capture her third career title and first of the season.”We’re out on tour to win tournaments and to win titles every single week, but tennis can be really tough where you sometimes lose a lot. Even when you’re winning a lot of matches, you’re still not winning tournaments, so it can get tough,” Pegula said after winning WTA 1000.Pegula’s triumph over Samsonova finished off a fantastic week for the world’s number one. After cruising through the first two rounds with straight-set victories over Yulia Putintseva and Jasmine Paolini, Pegula defeated her doubles partner and World No.7 Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals before defeating World No.1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals.
”Beating Coco and beating Iga were two really tough wins back-to-back, and being able to do that and then just come out today and play a really clean match was kind of great. I felt like I didn’t have a ton of pressure at any point or I wasn’t worried too much today,” Pegula said. Samsonova had spent nearly 10 hours on the court prior to the final. Earlier in the day, the 24-year-old rallied from a set down to beat No.4 Elena Rybakina 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 in a rain-delayed semi-final. “I know obviously physically she wasn’t feeling her best, but at the same time, I played a really clean match. I don’t really think I made any unforced errors or anything. I played kind of a perfect match,” Pegula said. “I feel like I did enough to where, yeah, I could just play freely, and I kept trying to get the break and just hold for as long as I could until I won the match. It was a good day,” said the American player. Meanwhile, Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara saved two match points to defeat No.5 seeds Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs 6-4, 4-6, [13-11] to capture the doubles title. The dramatic win rounded off a triumphant double-duty day for the Japanese combination, who had previously upset Latisha Chan and Yang Zhaoxuan in the postponed doubles quarterfinal.
