Three final events of ATP 250 took place across Europe on Sunday. Stockholm Open, Antwerp’s European Open and Tennis Napoli Cup.
Musetti conquers Napoli
It was Italian Lorenzo Musetti’s turn to get the ATP title. In an all-Italian final, Musetti outclassed the number 2 seed Berrertini in straight sets 7-6 (5), 6-2 at Tennis Napoli Cup.
The 20-year-old missed four breakpoints initially but then took a mini break at 3-3 against his countryman. He won the second set comfortably without much trouble.
Musetti has improved to 30-23 this year and this was his second title after victory over the world number 1 Alcaraz in Hamburg.
Felix wins Antwerp
Felix Auger-Aliassime won his second title in consecutive weeks at Antwerp’s European Open.
The Canadian outperformed the youngster Sebastian Korda, 6-3, 6-4, hitting 23 winners. Korda had defeated Felix in Estoril earlier.
Before this year Felix had no great record in finals having lost all 8 ATP finals. However, now he won the last three of the four finals this year. All of the titles have been indoors including the one at Rotterdam and in Florence.
Stockholm Open
At the Stockholm Open, it was Holger Rune who claimed the trophy by beating the top-seeded wild card Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4,6-4. He saved his best performance for the final and the Greek star had no answers to that. It was the second time that the 19-year-old has beaten Tsitispas.
Earlier in this break-out season for Rune, he had defeated Tsitsipas in the Roland Garros where he reached the quarterfinals.
Jessica Pegula wins her first WTA 1000 title
The American number 1 Jessica Pegula brought her A game in the final of the Guadalajara Open Akron to win her first WTA 1000 title of her career. She beat the no. 4 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece by 6-2, 6-3 in the final.
With this win, Pegula has improved her WTA win-loss record to 41-17 this year. Only two players have won a better record than her in 2021 ie world 31 Iga Swiatek with 62 wins and World No.2 Ons Jabeur winning 46.
Match moments: Till 2-2 in the first set, Sakkari and Pegula were evenly matched but then the American won the next 16 points of 19 with a brilliant forehand, effective groundstrokes and deep returns. Pegula didn’t face even a break point in her course of winning the first set.
In the second set, Sakkari was broken twice by Pegula leading and trailing 2-5. But Sakkari fought back and broke Pegula back to make it 3-5.
Pegula, though, was unaffected by this and won her next game to grab the title.
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Pegula dedicated her trophy to her mother and said she must be watching back at her home.
“Just a lot of emotions, but super excited just to get a big title next to my name. That was something I 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. Pegula added.
Pegula has been doing great throughout the year. It’s just that it wasn’t getting reflected in her trophy cabinet. With this win, she ended that drought as well.
Pegula defeated four Grand Slam champions in a row (Rybakina, Bianca Andreescu, Sloane Stephens and Victoria Azarenka) in her second WTA 1000 final run. She dropped only 12 games in her last two matches.
Stat: Before this match, Sakkari led 3-1 over Pegula.
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Pegula converted 5 out of her 8 break points against Sakkari,
This was her 10th top 10 player win.
Pegula had 11 winners compared to Sakkari’s 9. Sakkari also made 25 unforced errors.
In last two years, the American has won 39 WTA 1000 matches, the most by anyone.
