Vesely Joins Exclusive Club After Lifting Pune Title
Vesely Joins Exclusive Club After Lifting Pune Title
Czech lifts second ATP Tour title
Five years after capturing his maiden ATP Tour title in Auckland, Jiri Vesely added a second trophy to his collection on Sunday to complete a dramatic week at the Tata Open Maharashtra.
The Czech fired 26 aces to beat Egor Gerasimov 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-3 and become only the eighth player since 2013 to save match points in two matches en route to an ATP Tour crown. Vesely saved two match points to overcome Ilya Ivashka in a final-set tie-break to reach the semi-finals and advanced to the championship match after surviving four match points in another final-set tie-break against Ricardas Berankis.
Players To Win A Tournament After Saving Match Points In Two Matches (Since 2013)
| Year | Player | Tournament | Round/Players Defeated |
| 2020 | Jiri Vesely | Pune | QF (Ilya Ivashka) & SF (Ricardas Berankis) |
| 2018 | Bernard Tomic | Chengdu | 2R (Lloyd Harris) & F (Fabio Fognini) |
| 2017 | Victor Estrella Burgos | Quito | 2R (Ivo Karlovic) & F (Paolo Lorenzi) |
| 2017 | Feliciano Lopez | London/Queens’s Club | QF (Tomas Berdych) & F (Marin Cilic) |
| 2016 | Dominic Thiem | Rio de Janeiro | 2R (Gastao Elias) & SF (Rafael Nadal) |
| 2016 | Martin Klizan | Rotterdam | QF (Roberto Bautista Agut) & SF (Nicolas Mahut) |
| 2015 | Rajeev Ram | Newport | 1R (John Isner) & QF (Adrian Mannarino) |
| 2013 | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga | Marseille | QF (Bernard Tomic) & F (Tomas Berdych) |
The 6’6” left-hander improves to 2-1 in ATP Tour finals after winning his maiden ATP Head2Head match against Gerasimov. Vesely reached his first two championship matches in 2015, lifting the trophy in Auckland (d. Mannarino) and finishing as runner-up in Bucharest (l. to Garcia Lopez).
Gerasimov was aiming to become only the second Belarusian to win an ATP Tour singles title. In 2003, Max Mirnyi defeated Raemon Sluiter to lift his only tour-level singles trophy at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.
Vesely receives 250 FedEx ATP Ranking points and collects $91,625 in prize money. Gerasimov gains 150 ATP Ranking points and earns $50,710.