The BOSS Open trophy was passed from one American to the other when Ben Shelton won the final with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory Sunday at Stuttgart, Germany.
Shelton went to three sets during all four of his victories in the grass-court event and finished off his first career grass-court title against the defending tournament champion in one hour, 48 minutes.
“Certainly a difficult week, not an easy week to get through,” Shelton said. “I’m pretty exhausted, but to play the way I did against the quality of opponents I played in very tight matches and getting a win today against one of the best grass-court players in the world is a huge boost for my confidence.”
Shelton fought off five break points to win the first set and then two more to win the third to give him titles this season on grass, clay and hard courts. He won despite Fritz holding a 14-9 advantage in aces, while his opponent won 84% of first-serve points.
Libema Open
Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak continued his run of upsets all the way to his first ATP title, defeating Australia’s Alex de Minaur 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5) in the final at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Majchrzak took a 4-3 lead in the final set on a service break before de Minaur broke right back to get even and force an eventual tiebreaker. Majchrzak led 4-2 in the tiebreak before de Minaur rallied back to tie it 5-5, with Majchrzak converting his first match point on his opponent’s serve.
“This is an incredible moment for me and an incredible fun and run to make this happen,” Majchrzak said. “Alex is one of the toughest opponents you can face, so I knew I had to play my best to win and I think I did for the most part of the match.”
Majchrzak won despite trailing 33-24 in winners and having 50 unforced errors to 46 for de Minaur. His route to the title included victories over three players in the top eight of the world: No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime, No. 8 Daniil Medvedev and No. 6 de Minaur.
–Field Level Media
