SPANISH tennis star Roberto Bautista Agut has won his third consecutive final and second Auckland title as part of the ATP World Tour.
Seeded fifth, he netted two out of three sets against Argentina's Juan Martín del Potro in yesterday's (Saturday's) ASB Classic final in New Zealand, ending on 6-1, 4-6 and 7-5 to claim his seventh trophy in the World Tour after a strenuous two-hour battle against the second seed.
Bautista Agut has not been beaten since late 2017, winning the Chennai final and the Winston-Salem Open.
To gain his first title of 2018, Bautista also had to battle through a gruelling three-hour semi-final match against Robin Haase, but says he has had 'a fantastic week' in which he 'gave everything he had' on the court.
Bautista, 29, describes the last match in New Zealand as 'unbelievable', and recognises he was in top form.
“I played two amazing games at the end of the match,” he admitted, “and I've been fighting a lot on the court.”
Speaking of his duel with Del Potro, who clinched the Auckland title in 2009 and had not dropped a single set until the final, Bautista said: “I started the match very well.
“I knew the beginning of the match was going to be important. I wanted to play very aggressively; I wanted to be ready.”
He said he tried to 'have Juan Martin moving around the court', a strategy which worked as he broke Del Potro three times in the first 31 minutes to end the set on 6-1.
The Argentine clawed his way back swiftly, though, giving it his all in set two and forcing a decider in game 10 by breaking Bautista, leading to the match being levelled up with a set to each player.
Overall, it was a very close match, since they were equal on the third set on 5-5 until the very end when Bautista took advantage of a break point which offered a second serve, sealing the competition for the Spaniard.
“I wasn't expecting to reach a final in my first tournament of the year,” Del Potro admited afterwards.
And despite his defeat, he is now back in the ATP top 10 as a result of his reaching the last round in Auckland giving him 150 points - a ranking he has not enjoyed in nearly three-and-a-half years – as well as pocketing US$47,105 (€38,604) for second prize.
Bautista won US$89,435 (€73,295) and will keep his ATP ranking of 21st in the world.
