Jessica Pegula caps a season of under-the-radar success with biggest career title in Guadalajara

I’ve never seen so many fans screaming my name,” a slightly incredulous Jessica Pegula said after her breezy, ultra-controlled 6-2, 6-3 win over Maria Sakkari in the Guadalajara Open Akron final on Sunday.

Tennis fans in the U.S. this year screamed for Serena Williams. They applauded as Danielle Collins and Coco Gauff reached their first Grand Slam finals. But it’s the unassuming and under-the-radar Pegula who has earned the highest ranking of any American woman this season. And it’s Pegula who was, finally, rewarded for her famous workaholism with her biggest career title, in her first WTA 1000-level final. This year she has reached three Grand Slam quarterfinals and elevated her ranking to a career-high No. 3; her 2022 deserved a few screams of appreciation.

While the atmosphere and the stakes may have felt different to Pegula, she won this match the way she has won so many this year. She came in with a clear game plan—go after Sakkari’s long and erratic forehand—which she executed relentlessly. Counter Sakkari’s topspin with flat, penetrating pace, without doing anything risky or aiming for the lines. Hit with depth and follow those deep shots to the net. Pegula never looked like she was doing anything spectacular—she rarely does. But at the same time Sakkari, who led their head-to-head 3-1, was flummoxed by her mix of aggression and safety.

This week Pegula knocked off an impressive lineup of recent and former Slam champs: Elena Rybakina (after saving match points), Bianca Andreescu, countrywoman Sloane Stephens and Victoria Azarenka. Two passages of play on Sunday tell the understated story of how Pegula wins matches like these, against opponents who would seem to have more in their arsenals.

With Sakkari serving at 2-2 in the first set, Pegula suddenly changed her service return position at 15-15, inducing a double fault. Seeing her opponent’s shakiness, on the next point Pegula sliced a backhand softly down the middle, forcing Sakkari to generate the pace herself. Sakkari took a big cut and drilled a forehand into the middle of the net to set Pegula up with two break points.

In the second set, Pegula began to work the center of the court. She hit two backhands up the middle that gave Sakkari no angles to work with and led to errors. She sent another forehand up the middle, came to net behind it, and again robbed Sakkari of any angle for her passing shot. Finally, she hit a return deep and down the middle on break point, and a frustrated Sakkari hammered it into the net.

Down 2-5, Sakkari tried to muster a last stand, but it fizzled after one game. Which wasn’t a surprise. She had won her rain-delayed semifinal, over Marie Bouzkova, earlier the same day. She had survived back-to-back three-setters, against Danielle Collins and Veronica Kudermetova, to clinch her spot in next week’s WTA Finals in Fort Worth. It has been a long and largely frustrating season for Sakkari, who failed to improve on her promising 2021. But she persevered, and, like Pegula, she was rewarded for it in the end.

These two will travel to Texas for the season finale. Can Sakkari build on her wins in Guadalajara? Will the fans in Pegula’s home country appreciate her the way they did today in Mexico? If she keeps playing the way she has in 2022, the screams—and bigger titles—will come.