American Jessica Pegula captured her first WTA 1000 crown with a 6-2 6-3 win over Maria Sakkari within the Guadalajara Open closing on Sunday.
The third seed, who might be making her first look on the season-ending WTA Finals in Texas this month, beat 4 Grand Slam champions en path to the ultimate, the place she wanted solely 70 minutes to beat Sakkari.
“All the people I beat, my draw to get here in my opinion was honestly the toughest out of everybody,” mentioned Pegula, who beat main winners Victoria Azarenka, Sloane Stephens, Bianca Andreescu and Elena Rybakina within the earlier rounds.
“So I used to be a bit of aggravated once I noticed the draw come out.
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JPEG retains her focus and captures the 2022 @WTAGuadalajara title!@JLPegula | #GDLOPENAKRON pic.twitter.com/Ot8KgrU53z
— wta (@WTA) October 24, 2022
“But the way I’ve been able to manage it throughout the whole week, today handle my nerves and emotions, I’m super proud of myself.”
Pegula switched gears at 2-2 and went on to take the opening set. She broke twice to race forward 5-2 within the subsequent earlier than closing out the win as fourth seed Sakkari struggled with unforced errors.
Pegula transformed 5 out of eight break factors in opposition to Sakkari, who was enjoying her second match of the day having earlier wrapped up her rain-delayed semi-final in opposition to Marie Bouzkova.
It was Pegula’s forty first match victory in WTA predominant attracts this 12 months, with solely world primary Iga Swiatek (62) and the second-ranked Ons Jabeur (46) profitable extra.
She will rise to quantity three within the rankings.
Earlier on Sunday, Sakkari beat Bouzkova 7-5 6-4 to arrange the assembly with Pegula. She had gained the primary set on Saturday when the match was halted as a consequence of rain.
Returning to the courtroom, the Greek appeared to make fast work of her Czech opponent, racing out to a 4-l lead, earlier than Bouzkova rallied and swept the subsequent three video games to stage the set at 4-4.
Sakkari struggled to carry serve at 5-4 earlier than breaking Bouzkova to safe her place in her second WTA 1000 occasion closing of the 12 months.
