Stephens Wins First Career Title, Nishikori Edges Isner in Washington

Two Americans found themselves in the Citi Open finals from Washington, D.C. on Sunday afternoon. On the women’s singles side, Sloane Stephens was seeking her first career WTA title, while John Isner looked to take down last year’s U.S. Open runner-up Kei Nishikori in the Men’s Singles Final.

Stephens was playing in her first career final when she took to the courts on Sunday, but it didn’t look that way, as the former Australian Open semifinalist cruised past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2 for the Citi Open Championship.

“I just went out there and tried to play the best I could,” said Stephens. “I think I executed my game very well today—it was just a really good day for me.”

Stephens broke five times in eight chances and saved five of the six break points she faced. From the onset, Stephens was the better player, and picked up a routine straight-set win.

“It’s great to win this first title—I haven’t even thought about my next goal yet. First I’m going to celebrate, though! I’m going to the Ethiopian restaurant I’ve been going to all week,” said Stephens. “Last year, I was going through a learning process. I learned a lot about myself. And there’s still a lot of room to grow. Sometimes you have to go through the process. To get to this place, to get to this beautiful trophy, I had to go through a lot, but at the end of the day it was definitely worth it.”

With the win, Stephens moves inside the top 30 of the WTA Singles Rankings to 29th in the world.

Isner was looking to upend Nishikori, as he was playing in the third Citi Open final of his career. He looked good early, taking the first set, but was unable to hold off Nishikori, who came back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 and claim his 10th career title.

“I’m very happy to win after losing the first set,” said Nishikori. “I came back really well so I’m very happy to win today.”

After losing the opener, Nishikori nailed down one break point in each of the next two sets and didn’t allow Isner a single break point chance in either of the final two sets. In a match like this, that was the difference and Nishikori never relented on his serve.

“I didn’t make enough inroads on his first serve,” said Isner. “If you put a decent amount of first serves in the court, he’s arguably the best in the world from the baseline. It’s tough. I thought he served better in the second and third sets. He’s a great player and a great champion.”

With his run to the finals, Isner moves into 12th in the world.

Bob & Mike Bryan captured their 108th career doubles title on Sunday in the men’s doubles final, defeating the second-seeded pair Ivan Dodig & Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-2.

“I think this tournament is really valuable for our confidence, our momentum going into this hard-court summer,” said Bob Bryan. “It was nice to get some revenge on a couple of teams we lost to over in Europe. That will help us going into these next three big tournaments and crescendos at the U.S. Open in New York.”

In the women’s doubles final from Washington, fourth-seeds Belinda Bencic & Kristina Mladenovic beat third-seeds Lara Arruabarrena & Andreja Klepac 7-5, 7-6(7).