Jannik Sinner celebrates winning the Canadian Open men's singles final in Toronto, Canada, August 13, 2023. /CFP
Italian Jannik Sinner won his first Masters 1000 title, and American Jessica Pegula won her first title of the season at the Canadian Open on Sunday.
Sinner, 21, beat Australian Alex de Minaur in his third Masters 1000 final 6-1, 6-4, breaking five times and saving two of four break points to lift the biggest title of his career.
The two twice swapped breaks in a tight opening set before Sinner held and closed out the frame with a break at love.
Sinner took an early lead of 4-1 in the second set to take control and closed out the 90-minute encounter on his serve to improve to a 5-0 head-to-head record against De Minaur.
"It means a lot," Sinner said of the win. "When you work hard, such a result can help you, and in your mind, it makes you feel like you are doing the right things with your team, and I am happy to share this with all the people who are close to me every day."
Jessica Pegula (L) and Liudmila Samsonova shake hands after the Canadian Open women's singles final in Montreal, Canada, August 13, 2023. /CFP
Meanwhile, Pegula took an easy victory 6-1, 6-0 over Russian Liudmila Samsonova in the women's singles final in less than 50 minutes.
Samsonova went into the final only two hours after her rain-postponed semifinal match against third seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. At the same time, Pegula, who downed her doubles partner, fellow American CoCo Gauff, and world number one Iga Switaek of Poland, was more rested, which became obvious shortly after the showdown started.
Pegula dominated the match. She won all her first-serve points, broke Samsonova five times, and never faced a break point to wrap up the one-sided victory.
Well aware of the edge she had, Pegula gave the fifteenth seed credit in her speech, complementing Samsonova for her victories over two top-10 players in the tournament, including Australian Open champion and world number two Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus.
"She had some amazing, two top-10 wins beating two girls that are some of the best players in world, top five right now and winning Grand Slams," said Pegula.
"To me, she should be a top-10 player; hopefully, she gets there, and she's had great results. So kudos to her, and I feel bad that it wasn't the way it should have been, but I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes," she said.
(With input from Reuters)