This Sunday, Aug. 6 Gauff reached one of the peaks of her time on tour with her 6-2, 6-3 win over Maria Sakkari in the final of the Mubadala Citi DC Open. It was her first title since January, her first ever in the United States, and her first at a 500-level tournament.
World No. 9 Sakkari had won four of the previous five meetings against world No. 7 Gauff, including both this year.
But Gauff capped off an impressive week on home soil by coming from a break down in the second set to win 6-2 6-3. She will look to carry the momentum into the upcoming Canadian Open and the US Open later in the month.
Dan Evans was crowned champion at the Citi Open in Washington DC as he beat Tallon Griekspoor in straight sets. The British No. 2 had beaten second seed Frances Tiafoe and Grigor Dimitrov to reach the final, and he played at a high level again to get past Griekspoor and claim the ATP 500 title.
Evans, 33, came through 7-5 6-3 to cap a brilliant run in the States. It is his second career title after the ATP 250 he won in Melbourne in 2021.
The win moves Evans up nine places to No. 21 in the ATP rankings – a career best.
The German tennis player Laura Siegemund and the Russian player Vera Zvonareva won the doubles title in Washington after defeating Guarachi and Niculescu in the final. For the Chilean and Romanian players it was a bit disappointing as they had not lost a single set prior to the final and this made them favorites.
The Russian-German pair entered the tournament unseeded and ousted the pair of Yang Zhaoxuan and Tereza Mihailikova in the opening round. They then beat top seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez to reach the semifinals. They then triumphed over sisters Lyudmyla and Nadia Kichenok before winning the final against Niculescu and Guarachi 6-4, 6-4.
Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni won their third Match Tie-break this week at the Mubadala Citi DC Open to clinch the doubles title on Sunday at the ATP 500 event.
The unseeded champions earned a 6-7(4), 6-2, 10-6 win against Americans Mackenzie McDonald and Ben Shelton to improve to 4-0 this season in ATP Tour finals. The triumph also lifted them two places into the all-important eighth spot in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Team Rankings, giving them an inside track to qualify for what would be their Nitto ATP Finals debut this November.
Stefanos Tsitsipas held off a spirited Alex de Minaur comeback to clinch his first title of the season at the ATP 250 in Los Cabos on Saturday night. The Greek earned his 10th career crown and extended his perfect Lexus ATP Head2Head against De Minaur to 10-0 with a 6-3, 6-4 win on the Mexican Pacific coast.
“I feel like both of us wanted to go out on the court today and show a great final,” said Tsitsipas in his on-court interview. “I feel like it was a great match. Alex showed great tennis, I tried to keep up with the level as much as I could. I’m really happy we were able to deliver a great final today. I think that is the thing that stands out the most. It was a great match and the crowd, as always, was fully present and engaged.”
Tsitsipas, like Gauff, will head for the Masters 1000 event in Canada, which starts Monday. Now that these two highly touted young players are back on a title-winning path, could be there bigger ones ahead?