Title defended! Jessica Pegula stops Amanda Anisimova to retain National Bank Open crown

Jessica Pegula has run it back in Canada.

The world No. 6 retained her National Bank Open crown on Monday evening, completing the tournament's city sweep in Toronto a year after triumphing at Montreal. Facing countrywoman Amanda Anisimova, Pegula emerged victorious with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 win.

"Starting the third, I just tried to pick up my energy a lot," Pegula told press aferwards. "I felt like I hit a little bit of a lull, it's hard when you start off the first set, I felt like I was playing so well, serving so well, that I didn't really have to do too much."

Three of Pegula’s six career singles trophies have now come at the WTA 1000 level. She added to June’s title run on grass in Berlin and improved to 3-0 against Anisimova. Pegula did not drop a set across her five victories at Sobeys Stadium.

The No. 2-ranked American raced to a 2-0 lead, breaking in the opening game when Ansimova mistimed a crosscourt backhand. The No. 3 seed came out firing on serve, producing a seamless rhythm to maintain her advantage with ease. Feeling the pressure to keep pace, a double fault from Anisimova ended the first set.

After holding, successive forehand winners from Pegula handed her 0-40 against Anisimova’s serve. The Freehold, N.J. native brushed off the deficit to avoid history repeating itself, then soon found herself with all the momentum.

Creating her first two break points of the contest, Anisimova capped off a grueling rally with a forehand into the open court to take the second opportunity. She then recovered from 0-30 to consolidate the break with steady hitting from the baseline. Pegula later double-faulted to fall behind 5-2 before her opponent leveled the scoreboard with a closing backhand volley.

I've always just played well here, and I think my results kind of show that. Especially Toronto, it's nice, it's so close to Buffalo, I had a lot of friends, family, and my grandparents, my husband was able to come today, that's cool, I don't really get that at a lot of tournaments. —Jessica Pegula

Making the most of a clean slate, Pegula won nine of the first 10 points to reassert herself early in the decider. She twice reacted with “come on!” reactions in an important game that raised her lead to 3-0.

After Pegula followed up a clean forehand on the run with a forehand return winner, Anisimova hit a nervy double fault in the midst of another nine of 10 point stretch for Pegula. Eyeing the finish line, the 30-year-old served out the clash from deuce after 87 minutes to become the first woman to repeat as champion since Martina Hingis in 2000.

"I always feel comfortable on hard courts anyway, so I knew I would find my footing and kind of find my way throughout the tournament if I could get my way through the first few rounds. I think I was able to do that really well, and play some of my best tennis kind of later in the semis and the finals, for sure," she assessed. "Maybe in a way that kind of helped because there wasn't too much hype, I wasn't really thinking about it that much, it was more just I was focusing on other things with such a short turnaround from Paris."