By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday August 13, 2023
Jessica Pegula stormed to her second 1000-level title, dominating Liudmila Samsonova to triumph in Montreal.
Photo source: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty
Jessica Pegula produced a pitch perfect encore on Sunday at the Ombium Banque Nationale in Montreal, backing up her semifinal upset of World No.1 Iga Swiatek with a dominant display in Sunday’s final.
Pegula was flawless from first ball to last as she took down Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova, 6-1, 6-0 to earn her second 1000-level title and third title overall.
It was a tough turnaround for Samsonova, who played her semifinal earlier on Sunday, edging Elena Rybakina, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 to reach her biggest career final. The 24-year-old Russian played four matches in three days and didn’t have much energy to deal with the precise persistence of Pegula, who showed no mercy as she won all 20 of her first serve points and was never even taken to deuce by the World No. 18.
Pegula, who improves to 40-13 on the season, showed respect for the effort that Samsonova put forth this week in Montreal.
“You are an amazing player,” Pegula said. “I think everyone needs to give her a round of applause because she has played like five matches in three days.”
Actually, Samsonova played four matches in three days, but it was an arduous journey nevertheless.
Rain took its toll on the tournament, and forced Samsonova to do double duty twice. She took out Belinda Bencic and Aryna Sabalenka on Friday and waited around all day Saturday before her semifinal with Rybakina was postponed.
The Russian had spent a tournament-leading 9:48 on court prior to the final.
She needed one hour and 43 minutes to defeat Rybakina earlier in the day, and earned two Top 5 wins at the same event for the first time in her career.
Pegula, the World No.3, made sure that she didn’t hit the Top 5 trifecta, and it only took her 49 minutes to get it done.
The 29-year-old American is the first from her country to take the title since Serena Williams in 2013.
After raising the trophy Pegula also gave thanks to her coach David Witt, for a job – and a journey – well done.
“We’ve been improving, it seems like, in every tournament and every year. It’s been a crazy journey the last couple of years, and it’s coming full-circle when you can win big events like this, so thank you so much for the week.”