De Minaur Rallies Past Paul For Acapulco Title
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Alex De Minaur came from a set down to deny Tommy Paul 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the Acapulco final Saturday night for the biggest win of his career.
“It feels great, it feels amazing,” De Minaur said to the ATP. “I know the hard work that’s put in to be here and it’s good to see the results. It’s not always that you win the tournament and you get to finish a week unbeaten, so I’ll definitely cherish this going into Indian Wells and Miami.”
The 25-year-old Paul who had won a 3.5 hour marathon the night before, started strong and was on his way to his second career title — first at the 500 level — but by the middle of the second, after the two exchanged breaks, the Australian took over winning seven straight games to go up 5-0 in the third. That run included a lung-busting 16-point hold at the start of the third.
“Just to kind of stay in the match, especially in the second set,” De Minaur added. “I just dug deep, managed to scrap my way through it.
“And then the first game of the third set was exactly like my semifinal against Holger. So I had that in the back of my mind, I just told myself to keep pushing. If I could keep pushing myself and get out of that game, the momentum was going to switch. I’m very happy I was able to get out of that.”
The 24-year-old De Minaur finished won 34/42 (81%) on first serves, was 4 of 10 on break chances, was broken twice but broke serve four times in the match.
De Minaur captures his 7th career title, and first since Atlanta last summer. This was his 11th career final. Paul was seeking his 2nd career title. This was his 2nd career final.
De Minaur has now won all four tour-level head-to-head meetings with Paul.
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