AUSTIN, Texas (AFP) — World No. 4 Jessica Pegula powered to her first WTA title of 2025 on Sunday, beating McCartney Kessler 7-5, 6-2 in an all-American final in Austin, Texas.

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.

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.

Meanwhile in Mexico, top-seeded American Emma Navarro capped a dominant week with a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of qualifier Emiliana Arango in the final of the WTA Merida Open.

Navarro, seeded No. 1 for the first time, marched to her second WTA title without dropping a set, adding the 500-level crown to the title she won in Hobart last year.

Navarro hadn’t reached a final since, although she made it to the quarter-finals or better at the last three Grand Slams and came into the week ranked 10th in the world.

She needed just 55 minutes to subdue Arango, becoming the first player to win a WTA final 6-0, 6-0 since Iga Swiatek blanked Karolina Pliskova in the 2021 Rome title match.

Arango, a 24-year-old Colombian who made it past the quarter-finals of a WTA tournament for the first time this week, came into the tournament ranked 133rd in the world and will crack the top 100 when the new rankings are announced on Monday.