Stan Wawrinka beat Aslan Karatsev 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 in a hard-fought match to win the seventh ATP Challenger of his career at the Prague Open.
In the opening set Wawrinka faced a break point at the start of the match. The Swiss player held on his serve, but he was not able to convert three break points. He won 18 of his last 20 service points in the first set before taking the first set to the tie-break.
Stan cruised to a 7-2 win in the tie-break after 54 minutes. Wawrinka broke serve in the third game to take a 2-1 lead, when Karatsev sent a volley into the net. Wawrinka held on his serve claiming the title in 1 hour and 44 minutes.
The former world number 3 player has won the first ATP title since Geneva 2017. Thanks to this win Wawrinka returns to the top 15 in the ATP Ranking.
Wawrinka has claimed his seventh Challenger title and his 23rd overall title combining ATP and Challenger tournaments.
“I feel good, but I know I am not at my best yet. That’s the reason why I came here. I wanted to get some matches. Every match I was playing better and this was the best of the week. I am happy to keep going next week”, said Wawrinka.
In yesterday’s semifinal Wawrinka came back from one set down to beat 20-year-old wild card Michael Vrbensky 5-7 6-3 6-3. The three-time Grand Slam champion won all of his four matches in Prague in the deciding set and came back from one set down in his matches against Oscar Otte, Sumit Nagal and Michael Vrbensky, but this time he managed to win the final without dropping a set.
