Acapulco (Mexico) (EFE).- Australian Alex de Minaur, twenty-second in the ATP ranking, went from less to more to beat American Tommy Paul 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 this Saturday and win the title of the Mexican Tennis Open.
Paul needed just 38 minutes to come out on top, winning the first set 6-3, after a break in the fourth game, in which De Minaur found himself out of range, firing two balls wide at a deuce.
Although they had even numbers, Paul six winners and nine unforced errors, De Minaur 5-8, the American was sharper in decisive moments. He created a breaking opportunity and took it, as the Aussie let two go.
In the second set the two rivals imposed conditions with the service until in the sixth game Alex De Minaur went over Paul’s serve and broke it to escape 4-2.
The public indistinctly chanted the names of the players, although they welcomed De Minaur’s advantage, a promise to see tennis for a while longer if the Australian held his serve and won the set. It didn’t happen because Paul recovered the break by forcing his opponent to smash the ball into the net.
De Minaur raised his performance, placed his forehand well to hold serve in the ninth game and in the tenth game he broke and took the set 6-4.
At the start of the third set, De Minaur struggled to hold serve, but once the goal was achieved, he broke on a single chance and confirmed to take a 3-0 lead, taking advantage of six unforced errors from Paul.
The fourth game put the match on the verge of mate. De Minaur, with good handling of his drive, moved Paul, who played this Friday at 3h25 and could not reach two balls left behind the net; the Australian broke again and, after confirming, took a definitive lead of 5-0.
Persistent, proud, Paul fought and took the sixth ‘game’, but he could no longer stop De Minaur, who with his serve, won his seventh professional title in 2h 27.
The Open, which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, had a prize pool of two million 178,960 dollars, of which Alex De Minaur took 376,620 and Tommy Paul 202,640; the champion added 500 points to his ranking, his rival 300.
De Minaur assures that he has the level to enter the top 10 of the ATP
The Australian Alex de Minanur, who this Sunday won the ATP 500 title in Acapulco, claimed to have the level to be one of the 10 best tennis players in the world and he only has to prove it.
“I think I have the level; for a long time I didn’t beat many top 10s and lately my record against top 10s has been better,” De Minaur said at a press conference.