Nick Kyrgios has crowned a glorious week in Acapulco with the fifth ATP title of his career.
The enigmatic Australian brought world No.3 Alexander Zverev crashing back to earth with an emphatic 6-3 6-4 victory over the German in Saturday’s Mexican Open final.
Top-seeded Zverev hadn’t dropped a set en route to the final, but couldn’t win any against Kyrgios, who will regain his place in the world’s top 50 after hoisting his first trophy in almost 14 months.
Zverev is Kyrgios’s fourth big scalp in six days after he had also recorded wins over Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and John Isner to make the title match.
The two combatants had split their previous six encounters but, clashing for the first time in a final, Kyrgios broke Zverev early in both sets.
After pocketing the opening set, and breaking Zverev in the first game of the second, Kyrgios briefly lost focus to gift the German a foothold in the match.
From 30-love up, Kyrgios berated himself for double-faulting on break point down as Zverev looked to be assuming momentum.
Zverev conjured two more break points with Kyrgios serving at 1-2 but, after surviving, Kyrgios continued to frustrate Zverev with a series of well-disguised drop shots.
In breaking Zverev from 40-love up, Kyrgios also broke the second seed’s spirit as he forged ahead 4-2.
There was no way back as Kyrgios sealed victory in one hour and 30 minutes, ensuring a rankings rise from No.72 to 43rd on Monday, as well as a $US367,630 ($A519,000) pay day.