America’s experienced tennis player Jessica Pegula became Canadian Open champion by defeating Samsonova

Montreal: America’s veteran tennis player Jessica Pegula has won the second WTA 1000 title of her career by defeating Russia’s Lyudmila Samsonova in the final of Canadian Open 2023. World No. 3 Pegula defeated No. 18 Samsonova 6-1, 6-0 in the final played on Sunday. Samsonova was coming off a semi-final win over Kazakhstan’s Alina Rybakina a few hours earlier, so overcoming a tired opponent proved too easy for Pegula.

Pegula is the first American to win the Canadian Open in a decade since Serena Williams won in 2013. Having won her first WTA 1000 title last year in Guadalajara, Pegula has now joined Serena and Venus Williams as the third American player to win more than one WTA 1000 title. “We go on tour to win tournaments and win titles every week, but tennis can be really tough where you lose a lot sometimes,” Pegula said after the win. When you are winning a lot of matches, yet you are not winning tournaments, then the situation can be difficult.

“Winning a week like this week makes all the effort worthwhile. You want to move on for more. I’ll be right back in Cincinnati tomorrow.” Pegula ended a phenomenal week with a win over Samsonova. She easily cruised through the first two rounds with straight sets wins over Yulia Putintseva and Jasmine Paolini, defeating her doubles partner Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals, and then earned her second win of the year over world number one Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. Pegula said, “It was two tough matches to beat Koko and Inga. It was great to be able to do that and then play a really clean match today. I felt that at no point was there too much pressure on me or I wasn’t too worried today.”

Samsonova reached the final after spending almost 10 hours on the court. Earlier in the day, the 24-year-old Russian came back from a set down to beat No. 4 Rybakina 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 in a rain-curtailed semi-final. Samsonova was in form throughout the week after defeating players such as world number two Arina Sabalenka and Rybakina, but the fatigue of the semi-final played a few hours earlier took its toll on her in the final. Pegula, relaxed and confident after the victory over Swiatek, beat Samsonova from the baseline in just 49 minutes to win. Pegula made only three unforced errors in the match and did not drop a single point after her first serve, hitting 16 winners.