Nicolas Almagro defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7 7-6 6-3 in Estoril to win his thirteenth ATP title and the first since Nice in 2012. The victory took 2 hours and 46 minutes and might have been over a good deal earlier had Almagro converted any number of opportunities in the opening 2 sets.
Almagro twice failed to serve out the first set and also failed to convert any of the four set points he held from 6-2 in the first set tie-break. In the second set, a similar story unfolded, as Almagro was unable to serve out the second set at 5-3. In another tie-break he converted on his second set point to level up the match. Once level, Almagro was clearly the stronger player in the third set giving up just 4 points on his serve while converting 2 of 10 break points on Carreno Busta’s serve. In total, Almagro served 12 aces and held 80% of his first serves points.
The match followed a pattern of Almagro hitting heavier groundstrokes than his opponent; Carreno Busta sought to move Almagro around and made good use of the forecourt, either with drop shots or in closing down the net. In this batter, the 31 year old from Murcia won out.
With this win, Almagro is ranked 48th on the ATP Tour, his highest ranking, following injury, since October 2014. Almagro paid tribute to his wife following his victory: “It had been four years without winning a title, two years filled with injuries and in truth maybe I wouldn’t be playing tennis were it not for my wife. There have been moments when I felt good this year, but in general I wasn’t playing my best level and there were difficult years in which I learned to value other things, to spend more time with my nephews and that kind of thing.”
As for Carreno Busta, this is his second final on the ATP tour, following Sao Paulo earlier this year. He awaits his first title.
