De Minaur rallies in D.C. final, consoles opponent

Alex De Minaur rallied from a set down and saved three championship points en route to a 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the final of the DC Open on Sunday.

De Minaur, a 26-year-old Australian who was seeded seventh for the tournament, earned his 10th ATP title and eighth on hard courts. He was the runner-up to Alexander Zverev in Washington in 2018, and will enter the top 10 in the world rankings ahead of next month’s US Open.

Davidovich Fokina, the No. 12 seed, dropped to 0-4 for his career in finals despite leading 5-2 in the third set Sunday and repeatedly standing just a single point from victory. This was his second time frittering away multiple match points in a tournament final this year.

The 26-year-old Spaniard entered the week at No. 26 and will make his debut in the top 20 on Monday; he remains the highest-ranked man without a title.

“Alejandro, you’re way too good not to have one of these, it’s coming for sure,” De Minaur said during the on-court ceremony, gesturing to the trophy. “You deserved it today, I just got lucky. You are a hell of a competitor, hell of a player. No one on the tour wants to play you.”

Following their match, De Minaur walked over and sat next to Davidovich Fokina, consoling him after the hard-fought loss.

“I want to say congrats to Alex. He deserved the win. He was fighting every f—ing ball,” Davidovich Fokina said. “He was always pushing through my limits.”

Davidovich Fokina recalled that he had required a wild card to play in the U.S. capital last year, and was pleased to have at least guaranteed a rise to a career-high No. 19 ranking.

“We had a job to do before we started the year, to be at the middle of the year in the top 20,” he said. “This week we did it, just not with the trophy. But for sure, we will keep going, pushing our limits, pushing harder.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.