DALLAS — Second-seeded Tommy Paul gained his second profession ATP title, surging forward by successful the primary three video games within the third set and beating unseeded Marcos Giron 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-3 in an all-American last on the Dallas Open on Sunday.
Neither participant had dropped a set on the hardcourt in Dallas earlier than the ultimate.
Paul held serve to open the deciding set, and once more within the third recreation. He took the second recreation, which included Giron’s third double fault within the first all-American tour-level last since Tokyo two years in the past.
“That was a fairly unbelievable match,” mentioned Paul, who within the new ATP rankings Monday will transfer up one spot to 14th, making him the second-highest ranked American behind Taylor Fritz.
It was the fourth ATP last for the 26-year-old Paul, who’s from New Jersey. His earlier title got here in 2021 in Stockholm.
“That is our second title, however our first one within the states, so this one feels the perfect by far,” Paul mentioned whereas recognizing his coach, Brad Stine.
The 30-year-old Giron, who had defeated two different top-20 opponents in Dallas, was making an attempt to win his first ATP title. The Californian misplaced his solely earlier last in San Diego two years in the past, the identical 12 months he reached the semifinals in Dallas earlier than dropping a three-setter that had tiebreakers within the last two units.
Giron gained the second set after breaking serve within the eleventh recreation, then the 67th-ranked participant served to win the set with out giving up a degree.
“Marcos, I used to be watching you all week this week. You are enjoying unbelievable tennis,” Paul mentioned. “I do know your workforce and also you very properly. We performed via the challengers … so it is actually cool to be enjoying within the finals of a a event now, and hopefully we are able to hold doing it and hold shifting up for a lot of extra matches identical to that. That was unbelievable.”
Neither participant allowed a degree in successful his first service recreation of the match. However Paul then took the third recreation from Giron, who hadn’t misplaced a service recreation in Dallas earlier than then.
Giron had gained eight consecutive units in his 4 matches to succeed in the ultimate, and hadn’t given up 5 video games till the primary set towards Paul, which featured a number of prolonged rallies.
Paul then went from 40-love to deuce within the eleventh recreation earlier than Giron held for a 6-5 lead. However, Paul then held serve to pressure the tiebreaker.
Wu Yibing, who final 12 months at Dallas grew to become the primary Chinese language participant to win an ATP Tour title, wasn’t on this 12 months’s discipline.
The Dallas Open has been performed on the SMU campus all three years since shifting to Texas, however subsequent 12 months might be an expanded ATP occasion performed in a much bigger location.
When upgraded to ATP 500 degree from ATP 250 subsequent 12 months, the Dallas Open might be performed at Ford Heart at The Star, the world headquarters and coaching facility of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. That facility, about 20 miles north in Frisco, Texas, could have a fan capability of about 6,000, up from round 2,100 at SMU.
