Kyrgios, Pegula capture titles
Women’s winner is daughter of owners of Buffalo Bills and Sabres
WASHINGTON — Just five games into the Citi Open final Sunday, Nick Kyrgios clutched at the middle of his back after a point. Soon, he was holding onto the chair umpire’s stand while trying to stretch.
When the opening set ended, he was flat on the ground, getting treatment from a trainer. Eventually, after 1½ hours of play, Kyrgios was wincing in pain — because he was lifting the champion’s trophy at the hard-court tournament.
Kyrgios overcame a bothersome back and used two of his 18 aces to close things out, edging No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) to win his second title of the year and move his ranking back into the top 30.
Earlier Sunday, Jessica Pegula — a 25-yearold American ranked 79th, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres — won her first WTA title, defeating Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-2 in the women’s final.
“This has honestly been one of my favorite weeks of my life, to be honest. I’ve made massive strides,” said Kyrgios, who warmed up for matches by taking on kids in pingpong in the players’ lounge. “A week to remember.”
Kyrgios came into the U.S. Open tuneup event ranked just 52nd. He followed up his thrill-aminute semifinal victory over top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas a day earlier with a much more mundane triumph in the final.
There were zero break points for Kyrgios or Medvedev all match. The difference came down to Kyrgios’ superior play in the two tiebreakers. He trailed 4-1 and 5-2 in the first, before coming back, helped when Medvedev pushed a forehand wide on set point.
This was Kyrgios’ sixth career title. The other one this season came at Alcapulco, where he saved match points against Rafael Nadal. This time, Kyrgios saved a match point against Tsitsipas.
Pegula’s parents are used to seeing the athletes they root for come up short: Mom and Dad own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.
On Sunday, their daughter was the one holding a trophy after winning her first WTA title.
Pegula picked up the biggest win of her professional tennis career by beating Giorgi of Italy.
“It’s been extremely gratifying. This is what you work for: to win tournaments. It sounds cliche, (but) the journey makes it all that much sweeter,” said Pegula, who recently began working with David Witt, Venus Williams’ former coach.
“This week, though, it felt different. This final, I felt like I was just ready,” said Pegula, who dropped to her knees on court after the final point, then celebrated with her dog, Maddie, during the trophy ceremony. “I was like: You know what? You’re going to go out there and you’re going to win.”
She had a 4-8 record and hadn’t reached the quarterfinals anywhere this season until winning five consecutive matches at Washington’s hard-court tournament.
Injuries to her ankle, knee and hip have slowed her progress.
“We always say she’s our first sports team — and our favorite. People often ask us which team we like better, which sport we like better, and so she’s always been our first team and our favorite team,” Pegula’s mother, Kim, said after the Bills’ practice at their training camp site in suburban Rochester, New York. “I said: She set the tone for the season now, right?’”
The Bills have made the postseason just once since 2000; the Sabres have an eight-year playoff drought.
This was Pegula’s second career tour-level final. The 62nd-ranked Giorgi was bidding for her third title.
Pegula said that Witt didn’t so much make any “big changes” to her game as he gave her “a couple little things to focus on.”
“Kind of helped me realize to compete for every single point and not really take off any games, take off any points,” she said, “and just keep that same mindset the whole time.”