Roberto Bautista Agut closed out one of the best weeks of his career in style, defeating former World No. 4 Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to win the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, his ninth ATP Tour title.

The victory comes just one day after upsetting World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who had won 29 of his previous 31 matches heading into their semi-final clash. Bautista Agut has now captured glory in January in four consecutive seasons after becoming the third Spaniard to win the title in Doha, joining Rafael Nadal (2014) and David Ferrer (2015). His triumph against Berdych also gives him 250 tour-level match wins.

“It was a great start to the season,” Bautista Agut said, before looking ahead to the rest of the season. “I wish to feel good physically, mentally, like I am now, like I felt this week. And if this happens, I think I can get better in the [ATP] Rankings, and why not be closer to the Top 10?”

It was by no means easy against Berdych, though, and it appeared that Bautista Agut’s path to victory was going to get complicated deep in the third set. The seventh seed gained a 4-1 advantage, and then held three consecutive break points to take a double-break lead. But Bautista Agut made surprising mistakes with an open court to allow Berdych to stay in the match.

After hanging onto his serve for 2-4, Berdych loosened up and played aggressively, especially with his forehand, to earn two break points of his own to get back on serve. But on the second of those opportunities, Berdych missed a sitting forehand approach shot, and that would be his last opportunity. Bautista Agut served out the match to love, striking a final forehand winner after one hour and 55 minutes, looking towards his camp and letting out a roar of ‘Vamos’!

“It was overall a very good match and I think the biggest difference was one game in the third set where I lost badly my serve where I hit two double faults in one game,” Berdych said. “In such a tight match, [that] just made the big difference and that’s why I think Roberto won today, because he was playing well overall and he had a great week.”

Last year, Bautista Agut won two titles — including the biggest victory of his career at the ATP 500 event in Dubai — to return to his career-high in the ATP Rankings of No. 13. But various injuries throughout the year saw the Spaniard miss three ATP Masters 1000 events and Wimbledon. 

That is all in the past now, as Bautista Agut is in superb form. This week, the Spaniard beat three players who have reached the Top 5 of the ATP Rankings, also defeating former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals. Bautista Agut’s run nets him 250 ATP Ranking points and $219,755.

“It’s always a very tough draw, very tough tournament with a lot of good players in the draw. And when I started the week, I was feeling good with the ball,” Bautista Agut said. “I was enjoying practising. I was playing match by match. And since the first moment of the tournament until the last point, I felt really good on the court.”

Despite the loss, it was an impressive week for Berdych, whose last event prior to arriving in Doha came at the Fever-Tree Championships last June, as the Czech missed time due to a back injury. Berdych, who was seeking his first title since Shenzhen in 2016, gains 150 points and earns $118,320 in prize money.

Did You Know?
Before this match, Berdych led Bautista Agut 4-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, and had won three consecutive matches against the Spaniard. All three of Bautista Agut’s victories against the Czech have come in three sets.

One year after finishing as runner-up to Gilles Simon, Kevin Anderson placed his hands on the Tata Open Maharashtra trophy on Saturday.

The 32-year-old South African clinched his sixth tour-level title after two hours and 44 minutes, recovering from 2/5 down in the final-set tie-break to beat Ivo Karlovic 7-6(4), 6-7(2), 7-6(5) in the tallest ATP Tour final in the Open Era. Breaking the record previously set by Anderson and John Isner at the 2013 BB&T Atlanta Open, 6’8″ Anderson won 88 per cent of first-serve points (57/65) to overcome 6’11” Karlovic.

Now 7-1 in Pune, Anderson notched his fourth victory in five FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against the 39-year-old to improve his record in tour-level finals to 6-13. Last year, Anderson reached a personal-best five championship matches on the ATP Tour, picking up titles in New York and Vienna.

In a set with few opportunities on return for either man, Anderson earned the only break points of the set in the tenth game. The South African connected on multiple returns and fired passing shots past the World No. 100 to manufacture two set points. Despite being unable to take advantage of either opportunity, Anderson soon moved into a one-set lead.

The World No. 6 capitalised on a costly double fault from Karlovic to earn the first mini-break of the tie-break before immediately doubling his advantage for a 5/2 lead. A low return placed at the laces of his opponent opened up the three-point gap, with Anderson eventually taking the first set courtesy of another double fault from his opponent.

Once again, Anderson applied pressure to Karlovic’s serve in the second set. But, despite earning four break points, the South African was unable to avoid a second tie-break as Karlovic found success charging the net under pressure. From there, Karlovic levelled the match as Anderson leaked uncharacteristic errors on his serve and forehand.

After Karlovic saved two championship points at 5-6 (15/40) with back-to-back aces, a final-set tie-break was required to decide the champion. Karlovic opened up an early lead and showed his best form at the net to maintain his advantage until 5/4. Facing two Karlovic serves, Anderson earned both points with back-to-back passing-shot winners before firing an ace out wide to claim the title.

As the oldest player to reach a tour-level final since a 43-year-old Ken Rosewall defeated Tom Gorman to win 1977 Hong Kong, Karlovic was aiming to secure his first tour-level crown in two and half years. In August 2016, Karlovic beat Feliciano Lopez in straight sets to lift his eighth ATP Tour trophy in Los Cabos.

Anderson earns 250 ATP Ranking points and gains $89,435 in prize money for lifting the trophy. Karlovic receives 150 ATP Ranking points and collects $47,105.

Did You Know?
In 2018, Anderson became the first South African to finish in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings since No. 10 Wayne Ferreira in 1996. The two-time Grand Slam finalist finished the season at No. 6 with a 47-19 record.

Kei Nishikori beat Jeremy Chardy for the sixth consecutive time on Saturday to reach his second Brisbane International final 6-2, 6-2. The second seed rushed the big-hitting Frenchman, who never looked comfortable against Nishikori’s attacking style, hitting 26 unforced errors to only eight from Nishikori.

Chardy’s serve and free-swinging forehand carried him to his second semi-final since June, a run that included a three-set win against 2018 champion Nick Kyrgios. But Nishikori absorbed the Frenchman’s pace and retrieved everything Chardy threw back. Nishikori broke in the fifth and seventh game in the opener, and followed the same pattern to advance in just over an hour.

The Japanese right-hander will play either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France or Russian Daniil Medvedev in Sunday’s final. Nishikori has lost nine straight ATP Tour finals and has played 51 events since his 11^th and most recent trophy in Memphis in 2016 (d. Fritz).

He leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Tsonga 5-3. Nishikori and Medvedev split their two FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, with the Russian winning their most recent contest last year in the Tokyo final.