WASHINGTON (AFP) - Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, seeking his first title in three years, advanced to the men's final at the ATP and WTA Washington Open with a tight victory on Saturday (Aug 6) over Sweden's Mikael Ymer.
Australia's 63rd-ranked Kyrgios edged out 115th-ranked Ymer 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 and will play for the crown Sunday against Japan's 96th-ranked Yoshihito Nishioka, who beat top seed Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final.
Kyrgios, who won the most recent of his six ATP titles at Washington in 2019, has a 3-0 record against Nishioka.
Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, trying to end a nine-year WTA title drought at age 37, and 60th-ranked Liudmila Samsonova will meet in the women's final at the US Open tune-up.
World No. 37 Kanepi eliminated Australia's Daria Saville 6-3, 6-1 in 73 minutes, while Samsonova routed China's Wang Xiyu 6-1, 6-1 in 67 minutes.
Kyrgios won the last three points in the first-set tie-breaker, Ymer sending a forehand long to end an intense rally before Kyrgios added a service winner and overhead smash.
Ymer, who lost his only ATP final last August in Winston-Salem, botched a forehand volley in the third game of the second set to miss a chance to grab a break point.
Kyrgios earned the first break points of the match in the eighth game and took advantage on his third chance with a passing forehand winner to break for a 5-3 edge, then held to claim the match after 94 minutes on his 10th ace.
The Aussie fired 28 winners with only 15 unforced errors and dropped only four points on his second serve.
Kanepi seeks her fifth career WTA title but her first since the 2013 Brussels Open. She won her only WTA hard-court title at Brisbane in 2012.
Into her first WTA final since a 2021 Australian Open tune-up at Melbourne, Kanepi dominated Saville's 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."
Kanepi reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final since 2017 at this year's Australian Open and credited that for a confidence boost crucial to her success this year.
"It was amazing," she said.
"I never thought I would make quarters in Australia. I thought it's not just my place. But I played really well, and then I continued playing well. I didn't actually put any pressure on myself to achieve something special."
Samsonova, 23, won her only meeting with Kanepi in last year's first round at Wimbledon. Samsonova is into her first WTA hard-court final, having won her only tour final at last year's German Open.
