Photo : Martin Sidorjak
Gabriela Dabrowski’s search for a career-best fourth title of the season will have to wait after the Canadian was defeated in the final of the San Diego Open on Sunday by the home favourites Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula.
The defeat snapped an 11-match winning streak for Dabrowski, who came into the final undefeated since the US Open having won back-to-back titles in Chennai and Tokyo.
For the moment, the No. 8 doubles player in the world remains at three titles on the season, which matches her career-high from 2018.
In San Diego, Dabrowski and partner Giuliana Olmos got off to a quick start against the All-American pair, who had had to play their semifinal earlier on Sunday. But once Gauff and Pegula got rolling, there was no stopping them as the Americans completed the comeback to claim the title with a 1-6, 6-4, 10-4 win.
Dabrowski and Olmos looked to take advantage early of some possible fatigue from their opponents, winning five games in a row from 1-1 to claim the opening set.
However, the Americans quickly stopped the bleeding with a break to open the second set. The Canadian-Mexican duo did manage to break back quickly and level the set at 2-2, but failing to convert a few break point opportunities cost them as Gauff and Pegula broke and 5-all and served the set out to love to send the title match to a supertiebreak.
The breaker followed a similar script to the second set, with the Americans striking first, racing out to a 4-1 lead only for the Dabrowski and always to scrap their way back, leveling at 4-all.
From there, it was all Gauff and Pegula as they won the next six points in a row, including three minibreaks, to take the tiebreak, the match, and the title.
Dabrowski will likely have two more chances to claim a fourth title in 2022. She and Olmos are the fourth seeds this week at the WTA 1000 event in Guadalajara and have already qualified for the WTA Finals.
Diallo falls in Challenger final.
There were four Canadians competing in finals across the tours on Sunday.
Félix Auger-Aliassime defeated JJ Wolf to win his second title of the season at the ATP 250 Firenze Open, Stacey Fung won the ITF title in Fredericton, while Gabriel Diallo came up just short of his second ATP Challenger title of the year at the event in Fairfield.
Diallo was beaten in the final in straight sets my Michael Mmoh 6-3, 6-2.
The American Mmoh, ranked nearly 200 spots above Diallo, was ruthlessly efficient when taking his chances, converting five of the seven break points he held on the Canadian’s serve in the match.
Mmoh was also dominant on his own serve, not facing a break point until he served for the match at 5-1 in the second set. At that point, Diallo made one last stand by breaking serve for the only time in the match to extend it. But it was all for not as Mmoh broke right back to claim the title.
Even with the loss, Diallo jumps 75 spots in the rankings to a new career-high of No. 250.
Despite being unseeded, the Canadian had advanced to the final having only dropped one set. He defeated the fourth and fifth seeds in the second round and quarter-finals. He won his first career ATP Challenger title in August as a wildcard in Granby.
