Murray clinches first ATP title since 2017; Bencic, Rublev shine in Moscow
- 20 Oct 2019
Andy Murray won his first ATP title since March 2017 on Sunday with a battling 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over fellow three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka in the Antwerp final.
Former world number one Murray, rebuilding his game after career-saving hip surgery earlier this year, fought back from a set and 3-1 down against Wawrinka to claim his 46th career title.
“It means a lot. The last few years have been extremely difficult,” Murray, who broke down in tears at the end, told Amazon Prime.
“Both me and Stan have had a lot of injury problems in the last couple of years. It’s amazing to be back, playing against him in the final like that. I think it was a great match.”
“I didn’t expect to be in this position at all. I’m happy, very happy,” added Murray whose ranking has plummeted to 243 in the world.
Fourth seed Wawrinka, also hunting his first title in over two years, broke Murray in his opening serve game -- enough to secure the first set in this 20th meeting between the pair.
The Swiss again broke Murray early in the second but the Scot hit back to level for 3-3 and then forced a deciding set as Wawrinka lost his serve for the second time.
Wawrinka again gained the upper hand as he broke for 2-1 in the final set, but Murray responded as the players traded breaks in four consecutive games.
With Wawrinka serving to stay in the match, Murray brought up championship point after almost two and a half hours and wrapped up his first title since Dubai in 2017 when his opponent strayed wide.
Elsewhere, Russia’s Andrey Rublev celebrated his 22nd birthday in style by clinching the Kremlin Cup on Sunday to bag his second career title.
The sixth-seeded Rublev eased past France’s Adrian Mannarino, who was runner-up to another Russian Karen Khachanov last year, 6-4, 6-0 in a one-sided final.
Rublev, the world number 31 whose first title came in Umag in Croatia in 2017, had never won a match at his hometown tournament before this week.
In the women’s final, Belinda Bencic fought back from a set down to beat home star Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
The victory came a day after the 22-year-old Swiss clinched the final slot at the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen, a tournament boasting record $14 million (12.53 million euros) prize money.
It is the first time that Bencic has reached the WTA Finals where she will line up with Ashleigh Barty, Karolina Pliskova, Simona Halep, Bianca Andreescu,
Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova and Elina Svitolina.
Earlier this season Bencic won the WTA event in Dubai and reached the final at the Mallorca Open.
Meanwhile, former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko secured her first WTA title in over two years on Sunday with a 6-4, 6-1 rout of Julia Goerges in the Luxembourg final.
Ostapenko, 22, broke second seed Goerges four times to clinch a third career title -- her first since winning in Seoul in September 2017.
Victory will move the Latvian, currently ranked 63rd, back into the top 50 next week.
Ostapenko, who claimed a shock triumph at Roland Garros in 2017, lost to US teen phenom Coco Gauff in three sets in last week’s Linz final.
Rising Canadian star Denis Shapovalov lifted his first ATP title on Sunday after a 6-4, 6-4 win over Filip Krajinovic in the Stockholm Open final.
Shapovalov, 20, did not drop a single set throughout the week in Stockholm and blasted 16 aces to see off the 60th-ranked Krajinovic.
Agencies
