By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday September 30, 2023
Veronika Kudermetova topped Jessica Pegula for her .
Veronika Kudermetova snapped a four-match losing streak in WTA finals and claimed the title in Tokyo with a 7-5, 6-1 win over World No.5 Jessica Pegula on Sunday at the Toray Pan Pacific.
The Russian has now won five of six vs. the Top 10 and improves to 4-2 against the Top 5 in 2023 by winning her second career title, and first since Charleston 2021.
Five-time champion Martina Hingis was on hand to present Kudermetova with flowers during the post-match trophy ceremony.
The 26-year-old has now won nine of her last 14 matches against the Top-10, dating back to Roland-Garros 2022.
Pegula squandered an early 3-0 lead but ending up breaking in the 12th game to take the opening set 7-5. The second set was one-way traffic as Pegula managed only the fourth game, and won only 7 of 18 points on serve.
Kudermetova improves to 2-0 lifetime against Pegula – she won the pair’s first meeting this spring in Madrid (6-4, 0-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals).
Kudermetova, who defeated Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semifinals, won 74 percent of her first serve points and 78 percent of her second serve points and faced just one break point across the 85-minute contest.
“She played some amazing tennis this week and was just too good today,” Pegula said after the final.