Jessica Pegula steamrolls Liudmila Samsonova to claim Canadian Open title
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Jessica Pegula of the United States hitting a return against Liudmila Samsonova in the final of the Canadian Open.
PHOTO: AFP
MONTREAL – American fourth seed Jessica Pegula sent a warning shot to her competitors ahead of the US Open as she romped to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Liudmila Samsonova in the Canadian Open final on Sunday in Montreal for her first title of the season.
While Pegula played lights-out tennis from the start, she also had an edge given Samsonova had to play the match about two hours after upsetting third seed Elena Rybakina in a rain-postponed semi-final clash meant to be played on Saturday.
“It’s tough, it sucks, I feel bad that we weren’t able to play on a more fair playing ground,” Pegula said after securing her second WTA 1000 title.
She is also the first American woman to win the event since Serena Williams in 2013.
Kazakh Rybakina was more scathing, saying she felt “destroyed” by the Canadian Open schedule and took aim at the WTA’s “weak” leadership after her quarter-final ended at 3am on Saturday and her semi-final was postponed to Sunday because of rain.
“I feel destroyed because of the scheduling and the whole situation. I’m not really happy about it, but it is what it is,” said Rybakina, who had her right shoulder strapped.
“Unfortunately, players can’t do much in these situations... So I picked up some injuries, but we tried to manage it and see how we’ll go from there.”
“Hopefully it’s the last time, because it’s been a bit unprofessional from the... I can’t say really the tournament because I think that the most important is the WTA here,” the world No. 4 added.
“Leadership a little bit weak for now but hopefully something is going to change, because this year it was many situations which I can’t really understand.”
Meanwhile, Pegula, who beat doubles partner Coco Gauff and world No. 1 Iga Swiatek en route to the final, was clearly the more rested of the two finalists and it did not take long for the unfortunate scheduling to show its impact.
The world No. 3 won a remarkable 100 per cent of her first-serve points, broke Samsonova five times and never faced a break point while wrapping up the one-sided victory in 49 minutes.
Pegula was in control throughout as she went up a double break before closing out the first set on her serve and faced no resistance from Samsonova in the second frame.
She was well aware of the edge she carried into the match and made sure to credit the Russian 15th seed, whose path to the final also included a win over reigning Australian Open champion and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.
“She had two amazing top-10 wins, beating two girls who are some of the best players in world, top five right now, and winning Grand Slams,” said Pegula, 29.
“To me, she should be a top-10 player. Hopefully she gets there as she has been having great results.
“So kudos to her. I feel bad it wasn’t the way it should have been, but I guess that’s just the way it goes sometimes.” REUTERS
