Milan, Minsk: South Korea’s Hyeon Chung upset top-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev to claim his first title at the Next Gen ATP finals in Milan on Saturday.
The bespectacled 21-year-old rallied from a set down to see off Rublev, the world number 37 who reached the US Open quarter-finals this year, 3-4 (5/7), 4-3 (7/2), 4-2, 4-2 in just under two hours.
Chung, ranked 54, sealed victory on his third match point after Rublev saved two to came back to 3-2 in the final set.
The former student of the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida — who turned to a mental coach to help him deal with the pressure of tennis — receives the top prize of $390,000 dollars (335,000 euros) but no world ranking points for winning the under-21 tournament.
It was Chung’s third victory over Rublev, whom he beat earlier this week and also saw off in Winston-Salem on the ATP Tour in August.
Russia’s Daniil Medvedev won the third-place playoff after Croatia’s Borna Coric pulled out injured.
The ATP used the inaugural tournament to test a number of innovations with the promising young players of the season competing in the round robin format with the first to four games in each set winning — a tiebreak is used when the scores reach 3-all.
Changes also included no line judges with all calls made using Hawk-Eye Live, no lets, sudden-death points at deuce and a shot clock to ensure a 25-second rule between points to keep things ticking along.
In Minsk, CoCo Vandeweghe gave the United States a 2-1 lead over the hosts Belarus in the Fed Cup final on Sunday with a straight-sets win over teenager Aryna Sabalenka.
This season’s Australian Open and US Open semi-finalist Vandeweghe, ranked 10th in the world, fired 12 aces to win 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 in her first ever meeting with the 19-year-old Sabalenka in one hour 18 minutes
The opponents both played with confidence from the start on the hard-court at the packed Minsk Chizhovka 8,000-seat arena, holding their serves until the 11th game when Vandeweghe broke.
But Sabalenka broke back immediately under the watchful gaze of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko to force a tiebreak, which the 25-year-old American won to take a one-set lead after 50 minutes on court.
In the second Sabalenka, who is 78th in the world, suddenly lost her nerve allowing Vandeweghe to break twice for a commanding 5-0 lead minutes before she took the set and the match sealing her victory with an accurate backhand.
The match between the Belarus Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Sloane Stephens of the USA will continue Sunday’s schedule ahead of potentially decisive doubles rubber.
On the opening day Vandeweghe put USA into the lead with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich, while Sabalenka beat Stephens 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to pull the scores level at 1-1.
