CALIFORNIA— World No 4 Jessica Pegula powered to her first WTA title of 2025, beating McCartney Kessler 7-5, 6-2 in an all-American final in Austin, while Novak Djokovic reunited with Andy Murray for Indian Wells push.
Pegula, the top seed, claimed a seventh WTA title and her first since she won the 1000 event in Toronto last year.
That was one of Pegula’s two titles in a 2024 campaign in which she also reached the US Open final, AFP reported.
In Kessler she stopped a fast-rising talent, whose first two WTA finals had yielded a pair of titles – in Cleveland last August and at Hobart in January.
The 25-year-old arrived in Austin riding high after claiming her first career top-10 player with an upset of Coco Gauff in the second round at Dubai.
But she couldn’ find a way past Pegula, who snapped a three-match losing streak in finals for a confidence-building crown heading into the prestigious hard court tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.
Pegula, the only top-10 player in the draw, dropped just one set all week.
Kessler looked set to change that when she rallied from 0-2 down to take a 4-2 lead in the first set.
But too many unforced errors from Kessler allowed Pegula to get back in front and after Kessler missed a chance to break in the 11th game she was broken in the next as Pegula pocketed the first set.
Kessler broke Pegula to open the second, but Pegula won the next four games to seize control.
Murray’s management team, meanwhile, confirmed the 37-year-old Scot had flown to California to continue his coaching arrangement with the Serbian 24-time Grand Slam champion.
Djokovic hired Murray ahead of this year’s Australian Open and reached the semifinal before being forced to retire against Alexander Zverev because of an injury.
His only match since then was a defeat by Italian Matteo Berrettini in Doha last month when Murray was not present.
Djokovic is scheduled to compete at both Indian Wells and Miami – known as the Sunshine Double – for the first time since 2019.
He is the joint record holder for titles at both Masters Series events with five at Indian Wells and six at Miami, tied with Roger Federer and Andre Agassi respectively. He has not won either title, however, since 2016.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Murray retired last year after the Paris Olympics and surprised the tennis world when he announced he would be coaching Djokovic in Australia.
Speaking in Qatar last month, Djokovic said: “It’s indefinite in terms of how long we are going to work together but we agreed we are going to work most likely in the States and then some clay-court tournaments and see how it goes after.”
Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz is the hot favourite to complete a rare Indian Wells three-peat while Poland’s Iga Swiatek will look to become the only woman to win the tournament three times when the main draw gets underway on Wednesday in the California desert.
With world No 1 Jannik Sinner serving a doping suspension, Alcaraz has one fewer obstacle as he bids to join greats Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer as the only players to prevail three consecutive times in “Tennis Paradise”.
The 21-year-old Alcaraz beat Daniil Medvedev in his last two Indian Wells finals and despite falling to Djokovic in the quarterfinals of January’s Australian Open, he has enjoyed a strong start to the year with an 11-2 win/loss record.
Djokovic, 37, retired from his Australian Open semifinal against Alexander Zverev with a hamstring injury and lost in the Qatar Open first round last month.
