Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili has won the Hamburg European Open for a second consecutive year, beating Andrey Rublev 7-5 4-6 6-3 in the final.
Fourth seed Basilashvili won 81 per cent of his first-serve points and struck 26 forehand winners on Sunday to record his 12th straight win on Hamburg clay, which includes 10 main draw victories.
The 27-year-old has now lifted three tour-level titles, with his other triumph coming in Beijing last year.
World No.16 Basilashvili, who saved two match points in his semi-final win over world number five Alexander Zverev, broke Rublev twice early in the final set and maintained the advantage to seal victory in just over two hours.
With the win, the Georgian became the first player since Roger Federer in 2005 to claim back-to-back Hamburg crowns.
“It looks like I am playing my best tennis here . Just to see my name next to (Roger) means a lot to me,” Basilashvili said.
“I played my best tennis here and I will come back next year, for sure.”
Russian youngster Rublev failed to add to his maiden title triumph in 2017 in Umag but was pleased with his impressive run this week, which included a straight sets win over top seed Dominic Thiem in the semi-finals.
“It was a good week for me. For the moment, my best week,” said Rublev.
“Of course, it is always disappointing to lose in a final, but Nikoloz was playing really well and he deserves it. To win two years in a row here is amazing. It is really hard. It is really tough mentally and he did it. It is unbelievable.”
Meanwhile, Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas eased past German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-3 6-2 to win the second ATP title of his career at the Swiss Open after not dropping a set at the clay court tournament all week.
The 31-year-old Ramos-Vinolas wrapped up his first triumph since winning in Bastad, Sweden, three years ago after both players’ patience was tested by a four-and-a-half hour delay to the start of the final because of persistent rain in Gstaad.
“It was not easy because everybody said it was raining all day,” Ramos-Vinolas said afterwards.
“I said to my coach and my wife I was thinking I have to be ready because if it stops, you uncover the court and in 30 minutes you are on court.
“All the time I was thinking I have to be ready and I was ready. So you have to be calm, but at the same time you have to be excited.”