Alexander Zverev rallies from verge of defeat to win Chengdu Open
Alexander Zverev was forced to pull out all the stops against Roman Safiullin in the Chengdu Open final, eventually emerging the victor in three sets.
Alexander Zverev.
The world number 10 lost the first set and teetered at 5-5 in the second set tie-break before rallying to claim a 6-7(2) 7-6(5) 6-3 victory.
World number 55 Safiullin had saved three set points at 4-5 and 0-40 down in the opening set before rising to the occasion in his first tour-level final.
But the experienced Zverev soon got his big serve firing and dominated the decider to seal his 21st tour-level title and his first on a hard court in two years.
"He's playing the best tennis of his life for sure," said Zverev of Safiullin, as per atptour.com.
"The way he was winning this week, I think he beat a lot of great players quite easily, so I knew that he was playing well. Obviously, I'm happy to be able to come back and to win this title."
Karen Khachanov ended a long wait for his fifth tour-level title as he beat eighth seed Yoshihito Nishioka 7-6(2) 6-1 to win the Zhuhai Championships crown.
Top seed Khachanov needed just 43 minutes to sink his Japanese opponent and win his first title since victory in Paris almost five years ago.
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