WASHINGTON — Sloane Stephens won the first WTA title of her career Sunday, overwhelming Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2 at the Citi Open.
The 22-year-old Stephens, who is based in Florida, has had plenty of success making it into the second week at Grand Slam tournaments, but she never had made it as far as a final anywhere until Washington's hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open.
Neither of Sunday's finalists was seeded; Stephens is ranked 35th, and Pavlyuchenkova is 40th.
Stephens raced to a 3-0 lead within 10 minutes Sunday by taking 15 of the first 21 points and never looked back.