Carreno Busta earns maiden ATP 500 trophy in Hamburg

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Hamburg, July 19 (IANS) Second seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain won his first ATP 500 trophy and sixth tour-level title, overcoming Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-2, 6-4 in the Hamburg European Open final.

"It's an incredible feeling," Carreno Busta said in an on-court interview on Sunday evening. "I think that I worked very, very hard to finally win this title. It's my first ATP 500 title."

The Spaniard, ranked 13th in the world, did not drop a set in Hamburg. He produced a dominant display in the championship match as he won 81 per cent of his first-service points and broke Krajinovic three times.

Carreno Busta has now recorded 17 clay-court wins this season, having also enjoyed runs to the semifinals at the Barcelona Open, where he lost to Rafael Nadal, and the Mallorca Championships, where he was beaten by Daniil Medvedev of Russia. This is the first time he has won two clay-court titles in a season. He has bounced back strongly this week after losing to Sam Querrey of the United States in the first round at Wimbledon last month.

"Maybe at the end of the match I was very nervous. But I served good, so [that] was very important to finish the match," said Carreno Busta.

Less than two years ago, Carreno Busta fell as low as No. 69 in the ATP Rankings due to a right shoulder injury. But the Spaniard, world No. 13 this week, is now closer to his career-high of world No. 10.

"I felt very comfortable during the whole week from the first match. I think that I played very good and I continued improving during the week. That's very important and today in the final I probably played the best match of the tournament."

Sixth seed Krajinovic was competing in his fourth ATP Tour final on Sunday. He equalled his career-best victory this week as he shocked world No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals.

--IANS

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