A day of joy for qualifiers Yoshihito Nishioka and Bernard Tomic
It was the day to remember for Yoshihito Nishioka and Bernard Tomic as they both won ATP Tour trophies as qualifiers on Sunday.
World No 171 Nishioka came through qualifying to win the Shenzhen Open, beating Pierre-Hugues Herbert in three sets to secure his maiden singles trophy.
The 23-year-old, who missed large chunks of the last two years due to an ACL injury, secured a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 victory over the Frenchman.
Mission accomplished 🚀🇯🇵
World No.171 and qualifier @yoshihitotennis beats Herbert 7-5 2-6 6-4 to claim his first ATP title in Shenzhen.#shenzhenopen pic.twitter.com/ptuwVrUWwF
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) September 30, 2018
“I believe this is the beginning,” Nishioka said after the match. “[Now I will] try to win 500 and 1000 [level] events…This is a very happy [moment] and I believe I can win more.”
Meanwhile, Tomic won his first final in three years when he beat Fabio Fognini at the Chengdu Open.
It has been a difficult year for the Australian, who has been criticised for not being committed to tennis, but he showed that he still has what it takes to win trophies.
The world No 123 saved four match matches as he secured a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7) victory in two hours and 15 minutes to win his first title since Bogota in 2015.
Back in business 💥🏆
Bernard Tomic saves FOUR match points to beat Fognini 6-1 3-6 7-6(7) in the Chengdu final.#chengduopen pic.twitter.com/9xkiqU00b9
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) September 30, 2018
“I was lucky. I think all week I was lucky. I was supposed to lose in the qualifying – in the second round to [Egor] Gerasimov – I was down 3-0, 4-0 in the tiebreak third-set. I was down here on center court in the first round,” he said.
“I was down a match point in the second round. I was down like I don’t know how many match points this week. I played really well the whole week and I’m so happy I won.”
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