Yibing Wu won the stunning final match of ATP 250 Dallas Open against John Isner, becoming the first ever Chinese player to take the title in all ATP competitions.
The final match, as expected, was a display of big serving performance, lacking of breaks, but definitely not lacking emotions, as the fans could witness emotional 3-hours long all-distance battle with 3 tie-breaks and plot twists. There was no clear pre-match favorite in this final, but it was clear that the ability to make any fear on opponent's serve will be a key factor to win this match, especially for Wu, knowing how a powerful weapon is Isner's serve.
The expected scenario came reality in the match, where no breaks where seen during all the 36 games. The opening set surprisingly brought two breakpoint chances for the Chinese. The second one was even a set-point in 12th game, but Isner came out of trouble brilliantly and took the first set in tie-break winning it 7-4. The American had a chance to close out the match in second set, producing his first breakpoint in 12th game of it, but Wu survived and it was the Chinese who occured the better player in second set's tie-break, moving the match into a distance.
Third set had a similar course of events as two preceding ones. Wu faced a serious fear in 9th game once being 15-40 down on serve, but survived it and whole the final needed to be decided in tie-break, which delivered an absolutely epic fight. Both players were unbeatable on serve during first 22 (!) points, which took 3 match-points for Isner in additional to the one from second set and three for Wu. The American was the first to lose point on serve, giving a huge chance for Chinese, who did not convert the first own-serve match point of the match. The battle continued till the Isner's serve within 13-12* score, when Wu stroke a great backhand return which forced Isner to throw the ball out of the court and made Wu the first Chinese ever to win the ATP title after 3 hours of epic battle.
It is a huge succese for Yibing Wu, who apart from taking his maiden career's title advances into 57th place in ATP rankings, his career's peak after moving up 40 places due to his fairytale run in Dallas Open. Hats off for Isner as well, as the 37 years-old American showed the skills and performance which he is known for the best, playing on his own terms throughout whole the week and being so close for taking another career's ATP title. The American scored as much as 44 aces in whole the final match and 140 in general during whole the week in Dallas.
