WASHINGTON: Gael Monfils ended a 2 1/2-year title drought by overcoming Ivo Karlovic 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 in the final of the Washington Open on Sunday.

The win was Monfils’ first victory since February 2014 in Montpellier, France, and came at a place where two of the players he looked up to — Yannick Noah and Arthur Ashe — had won before him.

“I grew up with those names,” Monfils told reporters. “Definitely to have my name next to them, it’s priceless. It meant a lot for me. I’m very happy, very proud.”

Monfils withstood a barrage of 27 aces from the 37-year-old Croatian, firing back 16 of his own. He ended Karlovic’s streak of 70 unbroken service games when the Croatian served for the match in the 10th game of the second set.

In the women’s final, Belgian seventh seed Yanina Wickmayer — a 2009 US Open semi-finalist — defeated 122nd-ranked American Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-2, to capture her fifth WTA title and her first since last year in Tokyo.

“This has just been an amazing week for me,” said Wickmayer. “Conditions were really hot out there. It was tough.”

Wickmayer became the third woman to win the singles and doubles championships at the same event in 2016 after winning the women’s doubles crown alongside Romania’s Monica Niculescu.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016