LONG ISLAND, February 19, 2018
Kevin Anderson wins his third third-set tie-break at the inaugural New York Open to earn his first title since 2015 Winston-Salem. The No. 1 seed from South Africa rallied past second favourite Sam Querrey 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 in Sunday’s singles final.
Anderson fired 16 aces, winning 68 per cent of his first service points to secure victory in two hours and 13 minutes. The 31-year-old moved to a career-best ATP Ranking of No. 9 on Monday. Anderson broke a streak of three consecutive finals lost, raising a tour-level trophy for the fourth time.
“I have been runner-up quite a few times in my career. One of the big goals I had for this year was to try to be a bit more successful in that final stage… It feels great to come through and get today’s win. It gives me a lot of confidence for the year,” Anderson told.
“Definitely feels very good to clear that last hurdle and walk away with the title. Had a lot of very close matches this week. I think my body has responded very well.”
Querrey was seeking his 11th ATP World Tour title, but his record in finals fell to 10-8.
“The way he plays, it doesn’t let you play that much because he goes for so much, so you don’t really get that comfortable out there. But it could have gone either way,” Querrey said.
Mirnyi/Oswald Triumph
Max Mirnyi, who was appearing in his 100th combined tour-level final, partnered Philipp Oswald to beat Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak 6-4, 4-6 10-6, earning their second trophy as a pair. The doubles final lasted one hour and 28 minutes.
Mirnyi and Oswald strengthened their record as a team in finals to 2-1.
“A couple tough matches. I felt like the match yesterday we kind of got lucky towards the end. They were a better team than us. Today was maybe 50-50 and there was definitely some magic for us in New York. I’m thrilled about that,” Mirnyi said.
“For me it’s like being in university. He’s my teacher… I think this tournament is really important for us for the next weeks with the big tournaments coming up,” Oswald added.
