Alexander Zverev has put an end to his 17-month wait for a title by drawing on the pain of his U.S. Open final defeat to beat Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3 6-3 and win the Cologne Indoors.

Zverev has had a breakthrough year in grand slams with his first semi-final at the Australian Open in January and a first final at the U.S. Open last month, when he lost to Dominic Thiem.

Zverev has said he thinks almost constantly about that final, and has credited it with raising his game in Cologne.

“I had a very tough final in New York and, the next final I played here, I wanted to come out and play my best tennis,” he said.

The German hadn’t played the final of any regular ATP Tour events in 2020 until Sunday. His previous title had been at the clay court Geneva Open in May 2019.

Zverev broke Auger-Aliassime’s serve in the first game of the match to establish early control.

He then broke in the second at 3-2 and saved two break points in his next service game to hold off a fightback from the Canadian.

Auger-Aliassime is still waiting for his first career title after losing six finals in two seasons, all of them in straight sets. All three of the finals that the 20-year-old Canadian has played this year have been on indoor hard courts.

Zverev said he and Auger-Aliassime had bonded while practising together in Monaco during the coronavirus pandemic, and he predicted a bright future for the Canadian.

“You’re going to be lifting a winner’s trophy very, very soon,” Zverev told him.

The Cologne Indoors is the first of two new back-to-back tournaments the city is hosting after the ATP calendar was modified due to the pandemic.

The second Cologne tournament was already holding qualification matches before Sunday’s final in the first tournament took place. It will feature Zverev, former top-ranked player Andy Murray and US Open quarterfinalist Denis Shapovalov.