Jessica Pegula becomes first American female tennis player to win National Bank Open in 10 years

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Women's Tennis Association (WTA) star Jessica Pegula recently became the first American woman to win the National Bank Open in 10 years.

Key details: In just 49 minutes on Sunday, Pegula, 29, beat Russian tennis player Liudmila Samsonova 6-1 and 6-0 at the IGA Stadium in Montreal, Canada. On average, a best-of-three tennis match lasts for about an hour and a half.

Praising her opponent: Pegula, who now has a second WTA 1000-level title under her belt, praised Samsonova after their grand final match and pointed out that the 24-year-old Russian player had finished her semifinal match against Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina 1-6, 6-1 and 6-2 earlier that day.

“I think everyone needs to give [Samsonova] a round of applause because she's played five matches in three days,” the Korean American athlete said after the match.

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Making history: The last time an American woman won the National Bank Open was back in 2013 when Serena Williams beat Romanian player Sorana Cîrstea.

Past matches: During the annual tennis tournament, Pegula beat her doubles partner Coco Gauff during the quarterfinals on Friday 6-2, 5-7 and 7-5. She also bested women’s singles world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinal on Saturday 6-2, 6-7 (4) and 6-4.

"Beating Coco and beating Iga were two really tough wins back-to-back," Pegula shared on Sunday. "And being able to do that and then just come out today and play a really clean match was kind of great. I felt like I didn't have a ton of pressure at any point or I wasn't worried too much today."

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