Diego Schwartzman is officially an ATP titleholder…
The 23-year-old Argentine tennis player cane back from the brink of elimination to upset second-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-0 and claim his first-ever ATP Tour title at the Istanbul Open.
Playing his first final, Schwartzman was trailing 5-2 in the second set before he won four straight games. Schwartzman failed to serve the set out but prevailed in the tiebreaker before dominating the third set with three breaks.
He completed the victory in 2 hours, 47 minutes.
Schwartzman’s third-set romp was aided by Dimitrov, who lost his composure and smashed his racket three times, which ultimately led to a warning, a point penalty and then another point penalty. The second and final point penalty came with Dimitrov down 5-0 and gave the game, set and match to Schwartzman.
“I let my family down, I let my team down, I let my fans down with that kind of behavior, which I definitely apologize for,” Dimitrov said.
In his best week on the tour, Schwartzman knocked out top-seeded Bernard Tomic in the second round before saving a match point in the quarterfinals against Damir Dzumhur. In the semifinals, he upset fourth-seeded Federico Delbonis.
It was the eighth final for Dimitrov, who won four titles, the most recent in Queen’s Club in London in 2014.
Dimitrov said he had a cramp when he was close to taking the second set.
“It was very unfortunate that I couldn’t close out the match,” Dimitrov said. “I have to give credit to Diego.”
Dimitrov broke Schwartzman four times in the first set, but the Argentine always fought back with a re-break to force a tiebreaker. Dimitrov finally won the set by converting his second set point.
