Mexican Open: De Minaur beats Ruud to win Acapulco for second year in a row

Australian Alex de Minaur, the No 3 seed, lifted the Mexican Open trophy for the second year running by beating Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 6 seed, 6-4, 6-4 at the Princess Mundo Imperial Resort in Acapulco on Saturday.

De Minaur becomes the fourth player to successfully defend the Acapulco title, following Thomas Muster (who won 1993 to 1996 when the tournament was held in Mexico City), Nicolas Almagro, who won here in 2008 and 2009 and David Ferrer, who won from 2010 to 2012.

This was also De Minaur’s eighth career singles title on the ATP Tour.

“I feel at home here and it’s a great place to be” – De Minaur on defending his title

“It’s been an amazing week,” De Minaur said in his post-match interview “Probably a week I didn’t really expect if I’m honest. I came into Mexico not feeling my best and just kept on telling myself to keep giving myself chances. I think today I played my best match of the tournament, so I’m extremely happy with that.”

“Acapulco has been a very good place to me for my tennis career. The first time I won a 500, and (now) the first time I’ve defended a title in my career. I feel at home here and it’s a great place to be.”

Despite losing in the final, Ruud will climb two spots to No 9 in the world rankings on Monday while de Minaur will drop one spot to No 10.

In the previous rounds of the Acapulco tournament, De Minaur, ranked No 9, defeated Japanese Taro Daniel (6-2, 6-1), Austrian Sebastian Ofner (6-1, 6-3), Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 5 seed (1-6, 6-3, 6-3) and Jack Draper (6-3, 2-6, 4-0 ret.).

Ruud, ranked No 11, beat American Chris Eubanks (6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3), Serb Dusan Lajovic (6-4, 7-5), American Ben Shelton (6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-4) and Dane Holger Rune, the second seed (3-6, 6-3, 6-4) earlier in the tournament.

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