No. 7 seed Alex de Minaur saved three match points and rallied for a 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over No. 12 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the marathon final of the Mubadala Citi D.C. Open on Sunday in Washington.
The 26-year-old Australian won his 10th ATP title and his first in more than a year. He trailed 5-2 in the third set against the Spaniard Davidovich Fokina, but he stormed back to force a tiebreaker.
The 10th game of that set alone featured 18 points; three times in a row, Davidovich Fokina went up advantage-40 and had match point, and all three times, de Minaur evened the match. He won the final three points of the tiebreaker to end the match at three hours and three minutes long.
de Minaur hit nine aces and saved 5 of 8 break points. Davidovich Fokina finished with more winners (28-23) but also more unforced errors (57-45).
National Bank Open
Canadian 35-year-old Vasek Pospisil played his final match before retiring from tennis, as Argentina’s Facundo Bagnis defeated him 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on the first day of action at the ATP 1000 event in Toronto.
It was a better story for his countryman, 18-year-old Nicolas Arseneault. In the main draw as a wild card, Arsenault took down French qualifier Valentin Royer 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Arseneault — ranked No. 636 in the world and from nearby Richmond Hill, Ont. — hit five aces on his way to winning 44 of 59 first-service points (74.6 percent). His opponent made a whopping 48 unforced errors.
Other winners Sunday included Emilio Nava, Reilly Opelka, Learner Tien, Chile’s Tomas Barrios Vera, Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Russian Roman Safiullin, Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, Australia’s Adam Walton and James Duckworth, and Argentines Juan Pablo Ficovich and Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
–Field Level Media
