Alex de Minaur produced a stunning performance to secure victory in the Washington Open men's singles final on Sunday (27 July).
With opponent Alejandro Davidovich Fokina taking the first set 7-5, and de Minaur levelling the match with a dominant 6-1 display, the match headed for a third and deciding set.
Despite a superb showing in the second set, de Minaur was soon on the cusp of losing as he found himself down 5-3 in the final set.
Fokina had the chance to serve for the match and win the tournament, but de Minaur was able to break the Spaniard and keep his chances alive.
However, de Minaur was in far greater trouble in the following game. The Australian seventh seed had to defend three championship points during his service game, as Fokina looked to be closing in on a maiden ATP Tour singles title.
Somehow, de Minaur managed to fend off the 12th seed with sheer resoluteness and the match soon headed for a final set tie-break.
In the tie-break, De Minaur broke Fokina twice in succession to earn championship point, and he wasted no time in securing the title as he served out the final point with an ace to take the deciding set 7-6 (7-3).
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De Minaur's reaction to the win
After the match, de Minaur expressed his delight at winning as he mentioned his previous final appearance in Washington, which saw him lose to Alexander Zverev seven years ago.
The 26-year-old commented: "I came here in 2018 and it gave me so much confidence, so I’m so happy that I was able to come back and end up winning the title."
He was also full of compliments for Fokina and was sympathetic towards him.
"Alejandro, you’re way too good not to have one of these, it’s coming for sure. You deserved it today, I just got lucky. You are a hell of a competitor, hell of a player. No one on the tour wants to play you."
Following his 10th singles career title, De Minaur now moves up five places to eighth in the newest ATP singles rankings.
The Australian is seeded ninth for this week's Canadian Open Masters 1000 event, so he will receive a bye into the second round.
He will begin his campaign in Toronto with a match against either Francisco Comesana or Damir Dzumhur.
De Minaur will fancy his chances of securing a maiden 1000 title win in Canada as Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Jack Draper are all skipping the event.
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