Shnaider Beats Fernandez in Tokyo Final to Win Sixth Career Title

Diana Shnaider beat Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the Pan Pacific Open final in Tokyo on Sunday, November 1, to win the title. The match lasted 2 hours and 18 minutes. It was the sixth singles title of Shnaider's career, her first title of the season, and her sixth straight win in a WTA final.

The scoreline tells only part of it. Shnaider led by a set and 4-0 in the second, and the final looked close to finished. Fernandez then won seven of the next eight games, took the second set 7-5, and forced a decider that had not looked likely half an hour earlier.

Fernandez fights back from a set and 4-0 down

Fernandez, the Canadian finalist, was playing her second straight final. She had lost the Ningbo Open final to Elena Rybakina the previous week, and she arrived in the Tokyo final on a short turnaround.

Her recovery in the second set was the heart of the match. From 6-4, 4-0 down, she won seven of eight games. She levelled the match at one set each and put the pressure back on a player who had been in full control.

For Shnaider, that stretch was the test of the final. A lead that big can go in two ways. A player can keep swinging and close it out, or the misses start to come and the match turns into a long fight. On Sunday it turned into a fight.

Shnaider holds her nerve in the third

The decider started tight. Shnaider saved three break points early in the third set, holds that kept her in front on serve while the match was still level in games.

She then broke Fernandez in the fifth game of the set. That break settled the final. Shnaider closed out the match from there and took the set 6-2, finishing the job she had nearly finished a set earlier.

The win continues a clear pattern in Shnaider's career. She has now won six straight WTA finals. Players do not build a record like that on easy draws alone. It takes a habit of winning the last match of a week, including weeks when the final stops going to plan, as this one did in the second set.

What the title pays

The Tokyo title is a WTA 500 event. It carried 500 ranking points and 185,500 dollars in prize money for the champion. Fernandez, as the finalist, received 325 ranking points and 114,500 dollars.

For Fernandez, the week still counts as a strong one. Back to back finals on the Asian swing, in Ningbo and then Tokyo, is a run few players on the tour matched this month. The loss in Tokyo follows the loss to Rybakina in Ningbo, so the trophies have not come, but the level that takes a player to two straight finals is there.

For Shnaider, the numbers are simple. Six career titles, six straight finals won, and a first title of the season taken in a final she had to win twice, once in the second set that got away and again in the third that she refused to let go.