Congratulations @CitiOpen champion, Sascha #Zverev! ?? #NextGenATP pic.twitter.com/lRFG1OGTZq
— Next Gen ATP Finals (@nextgenfinals) August 6, 2017
(August 6, 2017) Alexander Zverev of Germany and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia won the singles titles at Citi Open in Washington, D.C.
Zverev became only the third man this year on the ATP World Tour to win a fourth title when he beat Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4. He joins Roger Federer with five titles and Rafael Nadal with four in 2017.
This was Zverev’s fifth career tournament win on the ATP tour, his first 500-level event.
Heis expected to move to fourth place in the ATP Race To London. This is his first victory with former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero by his side as his new coach.
“I think I improved a lot in the last few months and in this off-season so I can be able to win these kinds of tournaments,” said the 20-year-old. “I showed in Rome and I’m showing it here again. I just hope I can continue playing well like this or even make it better in the summer. We’ll see what the next few big tournaments hold for me.”
“I obviously want to improve as fast and as much as I can until I’m at the top of the game. That’s what I’m trying to do. But it’s not in my hands.”
“It didn’t feel like he gave me a whole lot,” Anderson said. “I thought he served very well. Outside of the two games I got broken, I was pretty happy with the way I played. But with him playing like that I couldn’t afford to give up those two serve games.”
The 31-year-old South African was aiming for his fourth career title.
Your 2017 @CitiOpen champion @katemakarova1 & finalist @juliagoerges! pic.twitter.com/YCPYYQoLYZ
— WTA (@WTA) August 7, 2017
Julia Goerges served for the title at 6-3, 6-5, but could not close out Ekaterina Makarova. The Russian stormed back 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0 for the win.
It’s Makarova’s third career title, her first since 2014.
“Every time when I was coming back, I was really enjoying, and dreaming to win this tournament, and here it is. I’m so happy about that,” Makarova said during her winner’s speech. “I don’t have a coach this week with me, but I have some great supporters. The crowd was just amazing and I heard a lot of Russians today…all tournament, I just really enjoyed this week. It was amazing.”
Makaraova had to rally multiple times during the tournament to win in three sets matches. She advanced to the semifinals when Simona Halep retired from heat exhaustion at on-set-all.