(Reuters) – Belgian David Goffin fought back from a set down to beat Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7 6-4 6-2 in the final of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier for his first ATP title in more than three years.
It was the fifth singles ATP crown for the world number 15 and follows his success on the hardcourts of Tokyo in 2017.
The 30-year-old got off to a poor start against Spaniard Bautista Agut in Sunday’s match at Court Patrice Dominguez when he lost a tight opening set to the top seed.
Goffin regained focus to dominate the contest thereafter and came away with a victory in which he fired 13 aces and converted four out of seven breakpoints.
“It’s never easy to win tournaments. This is my fifth and every tournament I’ve won was special,” Goffin, only the third non-Frenchman to lift the trophy at the ATP 250 event, said in an on-court interview.
Tomas Berdych (2012) and Alexander Zverev (2017) are the others who have won the tournament in which Frenchmen have prevailed in eight of the previous 10 editions.
Goffin said he was delighted to end his title drought and credited the work he put in after “tough weeks” last season.
“I had some opportunities… matches where I had zero chance to win the final. Sometimes you take it, sometimes not… you need to continue, you need to improve your game, you need to fight… I’m happy it paid off,” Goffin said.
“A final is always different. You have to just go for it… I’m really happy at the end because it was a tough moment. I had tough weeks last season. I’m happy that I’m back with a level like this.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
