Kyrgios, Samsonova win US Open tune-up
Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios ended a three-year title drought by claiming the trophy at the site of his last triumph, saving the only break point he faced in the Citi Open final Sunday in Washington along the way to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Yoshihito Nishioka. Kyrgios’s seventh career tour-level championship came where his sixth did in 2019 — on the hard courts of the US Open tuneup in the American capital. As usual when Kyrgios is on his game, the serve led the way for the 27-year-old Australian: He hit 12 aces and won 22 of 25 first-serve points. He won all nine of his service games against Nishioka, making him 64 for 64 in the tournament, wrapping up the week by saving all 10 of his opponents’ break points. The only one Kyrgios had to deal with Sunday came at 3-2 in the first set, and Kyrgios dismissed it via a volley winner. At the other end, Kyrgios managed to break Japan’s Nishioka, who is ranked 96th and eliminated top-seeded Andrey Rublev in the semifinals, three times. Earlier, Liudmila Samsonova won her second career WTA title by coming back to beat sixth-seeded Kaia Kanepi, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the women’s final. Samsonova is a 23year-old Russian who reached a career-best ranking of 25th in May but is currently 60th after needing to sit out part of the season, including Wimbledon, because of her country’s attack on Ukraine. She used a powerful serve that reached 119 miles per hour against Kanepi to make her way through the bracket at the hard-court tournament . . . Seventh-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia rallied from one set down after dropping the opener in a tiebreaker and beat unseeded American Shelby Rogers to capture the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic championship, 6-7 (2-7), 6-1, 6-2, in San Jose, Calif.