Alex De Minaur took his 7th career's ATP title after defeating Tommy Paul in the final of ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco. The Aussie came back from being a set down and clinched the final victory with a score 3-6 6-4 6-1.
De Minaur was a slight pre-match favorite with an averaged odd 1.66, but it was the American who started better despite having not too much time to recover after horrific semifinal battle against his fellowcountry Taylor Fritz, which ended up after 3,5 hours. Paul resisted the pressure from De Minaur in 3rd game, defending two breakpoints and moved into the lead, gaining a break by himself, keeping the advantage till the end of opening set. The American was close to start his comeback while having a breakpoint in 3rd game of second set, but De Minaur cleared the trouble and moved into the lead in 6th game. Paul has never moved into front foot after this, despite making up the gap in following game. De Minaur won 7 games in a row since the score 4-4, taking the second set and moving up into 5-0 lead in the decider. The Aussie needed 2,5 hours to win the biggest of all his recent titles, extending his run of succesful final appearances to 4 in a row.
The new Acapulco's title holder reflected on his emotions and a way to turn over the score, during the post-match interview: "It feels great, it feels amazing. I know the hard work that is being put in to be here and it is good to see the results. It is not always that you win the tournament and you get to finish a week unbeaten, so I will definitely cherish this going into Indian Wells and Miami. I just dug deep since second set, managed to scrap my way through it. I just told myself to keep pushing. If I could keep pushing myself and get out of that game, the momentum was going to switch. I am very happy I was able to get out of that."
Both finalists capitalize on their run in Mexico by advancing in the newest ATP ranking. De Minaur will be classified 18th and Paul 19th on Monday, as both players move up 4 places from their recent positions.
Here are the final's highlights:
