Zverev beats Auger-Aliassime in Cologne to end title wait
Rublev wins St. Petersburg crown for 4th of season
COLOGNE, Germany, Oct 18, (AP): Alexander Zverev ended his 17-month wait for a title by drawing on the pain of his US Open final defeat to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-3 and win the Cologne Indoors on Sunday.
Zverev has had a breakthrough year in Grand Slam tournaments with his first semifinal at the Australian Open in January and first final at the US Open last month, when he lost to Dominic Thiem. Zverev has said he thinks almost constantly about that final, and he credited it with raising his game in Cologne.
The German hadn’t played the final of any regular ATP Tour events in 2020 until Sunday. Zverev’s previous title was at the clay-court Geneva Open in May 2019 and he is now 12-8 in career finals.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, Andrey Rublev joined Novak Djokovic as the only men to win four tour singles titles in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season as he beat Borna Coric 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Sunday in the final of the St. Petersburg
Open.
Rublev came back from 5-2 down to win the first-set tiebreak with a fivepoint streak after the set went with serve. In the second set he broke Coric’s serve at 2-2 before holding in his next three service games to complete the win. Rublev didn’t face a single break point.
The win brings Rublev closer to securing a spot at the ATP Finals next month after he moved into the top 10 of the rankings for the first time Monday. The Russian player won the Qatar and Adelaide titles in January and added the Hamburg title last month.
Beating Coric brought Rublev his 34th win of the season, ranking him second only to Djokovic on 37, and ahead of third-placed Stefanos Tsitsipas on 27. Rublev moves to a 6-2 record in career tour finals. Coric is 2-5 in career finals and 0-3 since his last win in Halle in 2018.