Former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev of Russia captured his first ATP title since May 2023 on Sunday, defeating France's Corentin Moutet 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 at the Almaty Open final in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The second-seeded Medvedev, 29, has won 21 tour titles, all at different events, and moved up three spots to No. 12 in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, trailing Lorenzo Musetti by 875 points. The Italian holds the eighth and final qualification spot.
In an entertaining two-hour, 29-minute match, Medvedev committed five double faults to zero for Moutet — seeking his first ATP title — but totaled eight aces to just one for the 26-year-old Frenchman. After evening the match in the second set, Moutet had a chance in the final set to pull even at 4-4, but Medvedev broke his serve before closing out the match in the next game.
No. 2 seed Casper Ruud of Norway cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 victory over French No. 4 seed Ugo Humbert in the final at Stockholm, Sweden.
Ruud, 26, dropped just three points on serve (36 of 39) in the 68-minute match, finishing with 19 winners to only two unforced errors against the 27-year-old Humbert, who advanced due to the semifinal retirement of top-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark. Rune confirmed on Sunday that he ruptured his Achilles tendon in Saturday's semifinal match against Humbert.
The first Norwegian to win the event, Ruud is now a 14-time tour-level champion and sits 11th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. He is 740 points behind eighth-place Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who occupies the final qualification spot.
No. 2 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada pulled out a hard-fought 7-6 (2), 6-7 (6), 6-2 victory over No. 3 seed Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic in the final in Brussels, Belgium.
With the two-hour, 34-minute victory, the 25-year-old Canadian moved up one spot to ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. He trails Italy's Lorenzo Musetti by 330 points for the eighth and final spot.
Lehecka denied Auger-Aliassime two championship points in the second-set tiebreaker, but the latter rebounded in the decisive third set to claim his third ATP title of the season. Auger-Aliassime finished with 17 aces and saved all three break points he faced while posting an 83% first serve percentage. Lehecka tallied 10 aces and saved four of six break points in a tough defeat.
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