WASHINGTON — Taylor Fritz and Alexandra Eala each claimed the biggest breakthroughs of their seasons at the Mubadala Citi Open on Monday, closing out singles finals that had been suspended by rain a day earlier at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center.
Eala, the No. 28 seed, rallied past Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 to become the first Filipino player to win a WTA Tour singles title. Pegula took the opening set 6-4 on Sunday evening before play was halted with the American serving at 2-1 in the second; when the match resumed Monday at noon, Eala leveled the set and then ran away with the third, dropping just three games across the last two sets. The 20-year-old, who trains out of Rafael Nadal’s academy in Spain, called Nadal her idol after the win.
Taylor Fritz followed with a 7-6(7-2), 6-4 win over 19-year-old Rafael Jódar for his 11th ATP Tour title and first above the 250 level in nearly four years. Jódar, playing his first ATP 500 final, matched Fritz on serve through a tight opening set before the American sharpened his return games to force the tiebreak, then surged to a 3-0 lead in the second before Jódar broke back to level at 3-2. Fritz closed it out by finding more depth on his groundstrokes down the stretch. At the trophy ceremony, Fritz told Jódar: “It was a really tough final and you are having an amazing season and at 19, on your first season on Tour, what you and your dad are doing is just incredible.”
Eala’s title vaulted her to a career-high No. 20 in the WTA rankings and No. 14 in the WTA Finals race; she is seeded 25th at this week’s Canadian Open in Toronto, where she opens against Alycia Parks. Fritz moved up two spots to No. 8 in the ATP rankings and heads to Montreal for the next Masters 1000 event of the season.