World number one Daniil Medvedev won his first ATP title of 2022 on Saturday, roaring past defending champion Cameron Norrie 7-5, 6-0 in the final of the hardcourt tournament in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Medvedev snapped a five-match losing streak in finals — a stretch that included his agonizing five-set loss to Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final in February.
He also came up short this year in 's-Hertogenbosch and Halle. He didn't get a chance at Wimbledon, where Russian and Belarussian players were banned because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
His first trophy since he won the US Open last year — denying Novak Djokovic a calendar Grand Slam — comes just as he launches the final build up to his title defense in the final Grand Slam of 2022.
Next he'll defend his Canadian Open title before tackling the Cincinnati Masters.
Rogers San Jose final
San Jose: Shelby Rogers, ranked 45th in the world, qualified for the WTA hardcourt tournament final in San Jose, California, on Saturday with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over 19th-ranked Veronika Kudermetova.
Rogers reached her first final since 2016 and will be seeking a first WTA Tour title when she takes on No. 12 Daria Kasatkina.
Rogers continued an impressive week that included an opening win over former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and a victory over world number three Maria Sakkari, the top seed.
The 28-year-old hasn't dropped a set all week. Rogers will be playing her first final since Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She was runner up at Bad Gastein in 2014.
Kanepi vs Samsonova
Washington: Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, trying to end a nine-year WTA title drought at age 37, advanced to the Washington Open final on Saturday by defeating Australian Daria Saville 6-3, 6-1.
World number 37 Kanepi will play for the crown against 60th-ranked Liudmila Samsonova, who routed China's Wang Xiyu 6-1, 6-1 in the other semi-final at the ATP and WTA hardcourt event, a US Open tuneup.
Kanepi seeks her fifth career WTA title but her first since the 2013 Brussels Open. She won her only WTA hardcourt title at Brisbane in 2012.
In her first WTA final since a 2021 Australian Open tuneup at Melbourne, Kanepi needed only 73 minutes to dispatch Saville, who was in her first WTA semi-final since 2018 at Acapulco.
"I played my best match," Kanepi said. "Everything was very smooth for me. I hit a lot of lines."