Monday, 22 October 2018

Edmund, Tsitsipas - first titles

The results in ATP tournaments over the weekend produced a Russian winner in a Russian event, and two first time winners on the tour.


ATP Antwerp 

The European Open will be remembered for the comeback by Kyle Edmund (1) to claim his prized debut victory on the ATP Tour.

He defeated Gaël Monfils 2-6 7-6(2) 7-6(4) in just under two and a half hours, going one better than his first final in Marrakech earlier this year.

Kyle will move up to 14 in the rankings, his equal career high.

Gaël has achieved well this week, but must add to a stinging statistic of 28 finals for only 7 titles.


ATP Stockholm 

The Intrum Stockholm Open will be treasured by Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) as it was the first title of his career, coming on top of losses to Nadal in finals this year in Barcelona and the Toronto Masters 1000.

Stefanos becomes the first Greek player to win an ATP title.

Against qualifier Ernests Gulbis, Tsitsipas won 80% of points on serve, and saved the only break point he faced for the match.  He dropped just one set for the tournament, the second in his opening match.

Tsitsipas will be a real threat in the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, starting 6 November, for which he has already qualified.


ATP Moscow 

Russian wildcard Karen Khachanov (3) defeated Frenchman Adrian Mannarino comprehensively 6-2 6-2, to claim the VTB Kremlin Cup, his third ATP title, and second for 2018 - the other was in Marseille, where he overcame another French player, Lucas Pouille, in the final.

Mannarino has now lost all of the six ATP finals in which he has appeared.  Khachanov served impressively, 76% points won on serve, and only facing one break point, which was saved.

In fact, the Russian serve was only broken once in the entire tournament.

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