Since his breakthrough semi-final run at the 2017 Coupe Rogers, Denis Shapovalov has been named as a title contender at ATP Tour events across the world.

On Sunday, the #NextGenATP Canadian became an ATP Tour champion for the first time at the Intrum Stockholm Open. Shapovalov became the 15th first-time tour-level champion of the year in the Swedish capital, defeating Filip Krajinovic 6-4, 6-4 in 84 minutes.

First-Time ATP Champions In 2019

Shapovalov did not drop a set en route to the trophy in Stockholm. The fourth seed beat Alexei Popyrin and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe to reach his eighth tour-level semi-final, before snapping his seven-match losing streak in last-four clashes against Yuichi Sugita on Saturday.

The three-time Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier’s victory marks the second straight year that a #NextGenATP star has captured his first ATP Tour crown at this ATP 250 event. In 2018, Stefanos Tsitsipas picked up his maiden trophy in Stockholm before triumphing at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.

Shapovalov’s title run comes in the same week that he booked his place at this year’s 21-and-under event. The third edition of the Next Gen ATP Finals will take place from 5-9 November at the Allianz Cloud.

Krajinovic was also attempting to claim his first ATP Tour trophy. The 27-year-old was competing in his third tour-level championship match, with previous runner-up finishes at this year’s Hungarian Open and the 2017 Rolex Paris Masters.

Shapovalov earns 250 ATP Ranking points and collects €109,590 in prize money for lifting the trophy. Krajinovic receives 150 ATP Ranking points and €59,255.

One year ago, the Intrum Stockholm Open was named the ATP 250 Tournament of the Year in the 2018 ATP Tour Awards. The award, voted annually by ATP players, recognises the leading standards set across events on the ATP Tour.

And on Saturday, the event was honoured for its efforts. ATP Supervisor Thomas Karlberg presented Tournament Director Simon Aspelin with a trophy recognising the prestigious award.

“On behalf of Stockholm Open AB and Game Set Events I want to thank everyone involved in planning and delivering this event,” said Aspelin. “It is such an honour to receive this award from the players and makes us very happy as we want all players to feel at home enjoying the best Swedish hospitality. A special thanks to all our loyal sponsors, volunteers and spectators for making this event possible and pushing us to keep improving every year.”

The Intrum Stockholm Open claimed the Tournament of the Year award in the 250 category for the second time. It previously shared the honour with the Winston-Salem Open in 2016. The indoor hard-court tournament marked its 50th anniversary last year. With the help of new tournament promoter Game Set Events, it celebrated unique moments of the tournament, including interviews on court with Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg.

Denis Shapovalov will compete in an ATP Tour final for the first time on Sunday at the Intrum Stockholm Open. But based on recent results in the sport, the #NextGenATP Canadian star feels that a changing of the guard is in order.

“I’m sure that next season there are going to be a lot of upsets,” Shapovalov said. “Obviously the Big Three, they’re still playing really well. But I think sooner or later, we’re going to dethrone them. So we’ve just got to stay patient.”

Earlier this week, Shapovalov qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals for the third consecutive year. Although it would take a herculean effort for the Canadian — who started the week placed 30th in the ATP Race To London — to earn a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, fellow Milan alumni Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas have already done so. They will make their debuts at The O2 from 10-17 November.

“I think slowly the players are starting to rise through the [ATP] Rankings,” Shapovalov said. “Medvedev’s really made a push the past couple of months. I’m sure a lot of players are following. There are so many talented guys. There’s Frances, there’s Tsitsipas playing well, of course always Zverev.”

As for Shapovalov, his form has snowballed — in a good way — since the start of the Winston-Salem Open towards the end of August. The Canadian made his third ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Miami this March, but proceeded to lose 12 of his next 16 matches.

A semi-final showing in Winston-Salem sparked a turnaround, though, and he has gone 13-6 since then. Even though some may have believed Shapovalov would have made a final before this week considering his magical run to the 2017 Coupe Rogers semi-finals, Shapovalov has not gotten overly keen. He has remained patient, and that has proven key.

“I think everyone has his own route. For me, I feel like I shot up through the [ATP] Rankings so quickly with a couple big results. But to be honest my game wasn’t there,” Shapovalov said. “I was really flashy, really big tennis, but also really up and down. So worked really hard the past couple years to strengthen other parts of my game and really try to make it complete.”

Regardless of whether Shapovalov triumphs on Sunday or not, the dynamic lefty has taken a step in the right direction in Stockholm. On Monday, trophy or not, Shapovalov will return to the Top 30 of the ATP Rankings for the first time since July, and he is as motivated as ever to continue climbing.

“I still feel like there’s a lot of room to grow, so I’m happy to be doing so well at the end of this year,” Shapovalov said. “But hopefully I can keep going so that a couple years down the road I can potentially be a Grand Slam contender.”

Marcelo Demoliner and Matwe Middelkoop have not been playing together for long, but they have certainly enjoyed plenty of success.

The Brazilian and Dutchman, competing at a tour-level event together for just the third time, defeated Italian Simone Bolelli and Argentine Andres Molteni 6-1, 6-2 on Saturday to claim the VTB Kremlin Cup title.

“I think it confirms what we believed, it confirms in the title. We have a great team, we have a great fight together and we believe in something,” Middelkoop said. “You don’t always get lucky to win a title, which gives you confidence, and we got the title.”

Demoliner had previously struggled in finals, entering Saturday’s match with a 1-9 record with a title on the line. But the Brazilian lifts his second ATP Tour trophy, and Middelkoop earned his eighth.

Just three weeks ago, they made the Zhuhai final, falling just short of victory. But last week, they lost in the first round of an ATP Challenger Tour event in Mouilleron le Captif, France against Romain Arneodo and Hugo Nys. That proved key, as they were even more motivated against the same team in the second round here in Moscow, riding the momentum of a victory against them to the title.

“That was like set in stone, ‘Hey, we can win this because we can beat them with good tactics and great execution,’” Middelkoop said. “From that moment we were cruising through the tournament.”

In the final, the fourth seeds saved all three break points they faced and won 51 per cent of their return points to triumph after 55 minutes. Demoliner and Middelkoop add 250 ATP Doubles Ranking points to their tallies and split $47,520.

“We had a good plan for this match and we executed very well,” Demoliner said.

Bolelli and Molteni were trying to win the title in their tour-level team debut. They earn 150 points each and will share $24,350.

Two years and eight months after winning his 45th tour-level trophy in Dubai, Andy Murray returned to an ATP Tour championship match on Saturday.

The former World No. 1, who returned to singles action at the Western & Southern Open in August, defeated Ugo Humbert 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 at the European Open to reach his first tour-level final since undergoing a second right hip surgery on 28 January. Since arriving at the Huajin Securities Zhuhai Championships last month, Murray has won 8 of 11 matches on the ATP Tour.

“I am obviously happy to be in the final,” said Murray. “I did very well to turn that match around today. It was tough. He was playing huge from the back of the court… It was tricky today but I am obviously happy to be back in a final.”

Appearing in his first tour-level semi-final since 2017 Roland Garros, Murray rallied from a set down to overcome Humbert in two hours and 22 minutes. Murray has contested almost five hours of tennis in the past two days. After straight-sets victories in his opening two matches against Kimmer Coppejans and Pablo Cuevas, Murray outlasted Marius Copil in a two-hour, 35-minute quarter-final clash on Friday.

The 45-time tour-level titlist will meet a familiar opponent in the final: Stan Wawrinka. Murray leads his fellow three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka 11-8 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

“I think it will be a nice match to play,” said Murray. “Me and Stan have played a lot against each other… It is nice that we are both able to be back playing against each other in a final.”

Murray will be hoping to become the second straight British winner of this event. Last year, Kyle Edmund defeated Gael Monfils in a final-set tie-break to lift his maiden ATP Tour crown.

After saving two break points at 2-2 with attacking play, Humbert claimed the only break of the first set in the following game. The #NextGenATP Frenchman continued to find success on his forehand side and attacked Murray’s serve, before back-to-back errors from the former World No. 1 handed Humbert a 4-2 lead. Three games later, the 21-year-old fired his third ace of the match to hold serve to love and clinch the set after 41 minutes.

Murray and Humbert traded breaks early in the second set, before finding their rhythm on serve to head towards a tie-break. But Murray avoided that scenario, breaking at 6-5 as nerves began to creep into Humbert’s game. The 32-year-old earned three set points as Humbert began to misfire and was gifted the set as the World No. 70 committed his third double fault of the contest.

From 0/40 down in the opening game of the decider, Murray showcased his best court coverage skills to earn a 2-0 lead. Unlike the second set, the 6’3” right-hander maintained his advantage before securing his fourth break of the match to reach the final. Murray moved up the court to convert his first match point, volleying into the open court after outmanoeuvring his opponent.

“It was obviously big for me to get that [6-5] game in the second set, but the game that won me the match was the first game of the third set,” said Murray. “When I was 0/40 down, I think I played a couple of good points. It was a huge game to get out of. I felt like the momentum was with me… Once I won that game, I felt like that was what set me on my way.”

Humbert was aiming to reach his first ATP Tour final and boost his chances of qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. The #NextGenATP Frenchman entered the week in eighth position in the ATP Race To Milan, with only seven automatic qualification spots available for the 5-9 November event.

Did You Know?
Murray’s win ends a run of French finalists at this event. In each of the previous three editions of the tournament, France has been represented in the final. Richard Gasquet (2016) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2017) claimed the first two European Open titles, before Gael Monfils’ final run last year.

Adrian Mannarino advanced to a personal-best third ATP Tour final of the season on Saturday, beating Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4 at the VTB Kremlin Cup.

The Frenchman, who is yet to drop a set this week, converted two of three break points to advance after 75 minutes. Mannarino is through to his second straight final in the Russian capital and will look to go one step further than 2018, where he fell to Karen Khachanov in the championship match. The World No. 44 improves to 10-3 at this tournament with his fifth victory in nine FedEx ATP Head2Head encounters against Seppi.

Mannarino will be aiming to capture his second ATP Tour trophy after lifting his maiden crown at the Libema Open in June. This will be Mannarino’s second championship match in four weeks, following his runner-up finish at the Huajin Securities Zhuhai Championships last month.

Mannarino will meet third seed Marin Cilic or home favourite Andrey Rublev for the title. The 31-year-old trails Cilic 1-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and has never met Rublev at tour-level.

Former champion Seppi was bidding to reach his second final in Moscow. The 2012 titlist has reached the quarter-finals or better in each of his six most recent appearances at the ATP 250 event (2012-‘14, ‘17-‘19).