Jessica Pegula was having an excellent week in Tokyo until the final when Veronika Kudermetova bested her.
Jessica Pegula is making a habit of finishing weeks in disappointing fashion lately, as her Japan Open ended similarly to the US Open. Back in New York, Pegula was looking destined to make a deep run at the event but then shockingly lost to a player many assumed she would beat.
The same thing happened in Tokyo as she was playing amazing tennis all week to shockingly get stunned in the final by a player many assumed she would beat. It wasn't a good match from her, probably one of the worst ones she played all week, but credit also goes to her opponent.
Kudermetova had a pretty poor season until now but found something in Tokyo and finished off the amazing week with a stellar performance in the final to win the trophy. The first set was somewhat close even though Kudermetova opened with a 3-0 lead.
Pegula would battle back to 3-3 but wouldn't see any more chances until the end of the set, thanks to the really solid play from the Russian. Serving woes would plague the American, and it proved costly towards the end of the set, which the Russian snatched up 7-5.
Not much happened after that because the Russian just increased her level while the American no. 2 wasn't able to keep up with the pace. As a result, Kudermetova broke her opponent's serve two times in the second set of the match, to win it comfortably 6-1, and also won the match 7-5, 6-1 to win only her second-ever career title.
On the other hand, while Pegula will be certainly disappointed by the final loss, she still has some things to be happy about. At least she secured the WTA Finals in Cancun and can look forward to that in the coming weeks.
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