Daily Times

WASHINGTON: Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios won his seventh ATP title and first in three years by defeating Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in Sunday’s men’s final at the ATP and WTA Washington Open.The 27-year-old Australian downed 96th-ranked left-hander Nishioka 6-4, 6-3 for his first ATP title since capturing the 2019 Washington crown.Kyrgios, who lost to Novak Djokovic last month in his first Grand Slam final, made back-to-back tour-level finals for the first time in his career and didn’t allow a service break all week.World number 63 Kyrgios fired 12 aces and 32 winners against four double faults and 20 unforced errors while taking 22 of 25 first-serve points to defeat Nishioka in 81 minutes.Kyrgios improved to 4-0 against Nishioka, the most recent prior win coming in the third round of his 2019 Washington title run.
In the women’s final, LiudmilaSamsonova won her second career WTA title by beating Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Her first title came at last year’s German Open on Berlin grass.Kyrgios became the first man to sweep singles and doubles titles in the event’s 53-year history — a feat he called “super special” — by joining American Jack Sock to beat Croatian Ivan Dodig and American Austin Krajicek 7-5, 6-4 in the final.Nishioka, who captured his only ATP crown in 2018 at Shenzhen, hadn’t won a tour-level match since March until this week, when he upset eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev in the semi-finals. Kyrgios will leap to 37th in the world rankings. He would have been 15th had world ranking points been awarded at Wimbledon.
Kanepi drought extended: World number 60 Samsonova fired 10 aces and 27 winners to beat Kanepi. The 23-year-old Russian came off a six-week layoff after Russian and Belarus players were not allowed at Wimbledon due to the invasion of Ukraine. Kanepi, ranked 37th at age 37, was foiled in her bid to end a nine-year WTA title drought. She last won a WTA crown at the 2013 Brussels Open. Samsonova dispatched three of the top six seeds, ousting reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu, fifth seed Elise Mertens and sixth seed Kanepi.