WINSTON-SALEM, August 28, 2016
Pablo Carreno-Busta claimed his first ATP World Tour singles title, winning the Winston-Salem Open on Saturday. In his third final of the season, after Sao Paulo and Estoril, the 25-year-old Spaniard denied countryman Roberto Bautista-Agut his third title of 2016 with a 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 victory.
Carreno-Busta sent down 12 aces and capitalized on both of his break points to prevail in two hours and 33 minutes. The world number 49 is the sixth first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this season. Players trying to win their first title in 2016 are now 6-11.
The match was the sixth all-countryman final of the season and third featuring Spaniards. Carreno Busta also evened his ATP Head2Head series with Bautista Agut at 1-1.
“It’s an amazing feeling. I worked very hard to be here and now I have to enjoy this moment. To beat Roberto you have to fight because he’s a really tough player. He’s a Spanish player like me. It’s not easy to play against another Spanish player,” Carreno-Busta told.
“To win my first ATP World Tour title is a dream because you can play finals and I played two this year. But when you continue working and you continue fighting all the time and finally the result arrives, for me, it’s really, really good.”
Bautista Agut was trying to win his fifth career title and third on hard courts. The Spaniard falls to 4-5 in ATP World Tour finals.
“I had many chances to get closer to the win today but I didn’t [take] the chances… I didn’t play well when I was set and break up. Tennis is like this, no? When you have the chance and you don’t [take] it, then you lose,” Bautista-Agut said and added:
“I came here to play some matches, so it was a positive week for me.”
Cruisin’ in style on the private jet to the @usopen. Thanks for a great #WSOpen final this afternoon! #WSO2016 pic.twitter.com/HZI71HQBx3
— Winston-Salem Open (@WSOpen) 27. August 2016
Garcia-Lopez And Kontinen Claim Doubles Crown
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Henri Kontinen, playing together for the first time this week, saved five match points in the second-set tie-break to come back and beat Andre Begemann and Leander Paes 4-6, 7-6, 10-8 in one hour and 54 minutes.
The win marks Kontinen’s 10th career ATP World Tour doubles title. “We just clutched up and found big serves on big points… It’s a lot of luck involved in a comeback like that… We kept believing and somehow found a way,” the Finn said.
Garcia-Lopez hadn’t played in a doubles final since 2014 but celebrates his third career doubles crown. “Doubles, everything is close. And then we won the tie-break, I think our energy went up, that’s why we won.”
