Jessica Pegula easily overpowered Maria Sakkari 6-2 6-3 in the Guadalajara Open final to win her maiden WTA 1000 trophy.
The American has played in one WTA 1000 final before this one but lost that one to Jabeur in Madrid. A stellar season would not be complete without her getting one of those and she proved best this week beating an impressive list of players that started against Rybakina, a match where she saved match points.
Speaking after the match, Pegula was overcome with emotions:
"I’m just super excited, relieved, happy, like all the emotions. Dedicating it to my mom was extra special, I know she was watching back home."
She continued:
"Just a lot of emotions, but super excited just to get a big title next to my name. That was something I really wanted this year, and I kept saying it was one of my goals, so to be able to accomplish it at the end of the year is really cool."
On the match itself, Pegula added:
"I thought I just played really solid, I didn’t really make a lot of silly errors or stupid decisions. I served really smart, I returned well. There were a lot of different points where I had to maybe slice and come in, or serve and volley, or do something different, and I just didn’t panic, I just kind of did what I had to do to win the point, and it was working."