Unseeded Sebastian Korda won an all-American battle on Sunday, defeating fifth-seeded Tommy Paul, 6-4, 6-3 to capture the Delray Beach (Fla.) Open.
Korda, 25, knocked off second-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Flavio Cobolli of Italy in the semis on the way to claiming his third ATP title. Korda followed up fellow American Ben Shelton’s win a week ago, using a similar formula. He served up nine aces, only two double faults and won 33 of 40 first serves (83%).
The servers were dominant in the opening set, but Korda captured four of five points in the 10th game to take the lead. The second set featured three early breaks of serve, with Korda racing to a 5-2 lead. Paul held in a 13-point eighth game and earned four break chances to prolong the match, but clutch serving by Korda helped him prevail. He improved to 5-2 in the all-time series with Paul on the ATP Tour.
Rio Open
Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry battled back from a set down to defeat Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 in rainy conditions on the clay for his first ATP Tour title. Due to the suspension of play on Saturday, each player won a semifinal match on Sunday morning.
The final lasted over three hours, 4 minutes and the final set featured steady rain. Etcheverry, the eighth seed, could not convert a late set point in the second, but won five consecutive points in the tie-breaker to force the match to a decider.
Etcheverry, who had lost three previous ATP Tour finals, broke the unseeded Tabilo in the third game of the set and took the marathon affair on the third match point. Tabilo won more points, 108-104 in the tightly-contested match.
–Field Level Media
