There was a double celebration for American tennis over the weekend with the country’s second and third-highest-ranked players on the WTA Tour each winning titles.
Jessica Pegula, who is currently ranked fourth in the world, was victorious at the ATX Open in Austin after beating compatriot McCartney Kessler 7-5, 6-2, in the title match on Sunday. It is the seventh time the 31-year-old has won a WTA trophy and her first since last summer’s Canadian Open. Pegula dropped only one set in the entire tournament, which was in the semi-finals against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.
“I want to congratulate McCartney—it’s been nice getting to know you and your team a little bit,” Pegula said afterward. “You guys have been doing amazing. I’ve been watching you a lot and kind of hoping maybe we would play a final here. So I’m glad we did.”
The triumph is a confidence boost for last year’s US Open runner-up after a disappointing performance in the Middle East where she was beaten in the Doha quarter-finals by Ekaterina Alexandrova (ranked 26th at the time) and then lost her second match in Dubai to Linda Noskova. Overall, she has won 13 out of 17 matches she has played so far this season.
“I wanted to win this tournament with it being in the U.S., but I was really happy with how I got through some different challenges,” Pegula said. “I think I beat some pretty in-form players, maybe not girls that are top 10.”
Meanwhile, at the Merida Open in Mexico, Emma Navarro stormed to the title with a whitewash 6-0, 6-0, win over Colombian qualifier Emiliana Arango. She is only the fifth player to win a WTA final without dropping a game since 2000 and the first to do so since Iga Swiatek at the 2021 Italian Open when she beat Karolina Pliskova.
“I feel great to win my first WTA 500, I have worked hard, not only in these first months, but in the past, in the last two and a half years and I have learned that you have to keep learning,” said Navarro.
Arango was on an 11-match winning streak coming into the final but was suffering from the effects of playing three consecutive three-set matches earlier in the tournament. Despite her crushing defeat, she will make her top 100 debut on Monday.
“Emma is a very high-level player, I don’t have much to reproach myself for, I gave my best. Clearly, she was a much better player than me and she left me with many things to learn. Obviously she was better today, but I don’t want it to be like that forever, so I have no choice but to put my head down and get to work so that I can do it in the future,” Arango told reporters.
Pegula and Navarro will both now head to Indian Wells which is a WTA 1000 event. An American woman hasn’t won the tournament since Serena Williams in 2001.
