Yoshihito Nishioka stuns seeded players to take Korea Open title

Yoshihito Nishioka celebrates after winning the Korea Open men's singles final at the Olympic Park Tennis Center in southern Seoul on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Yoshihito Nishioka won the Korea Open against fourth seed Denis Shapovalov on Sunday, taking the trophy after two sets of neck-and-neck play.

After nearly two hours, Nishioka beat world No. 24 Shapovalov 6-4, 7-6, with the second set ending in a tiebreak. Earlier in the day, Nathaniel Lammons and Raven Klaasen won the men’s doubles final against Nicolas Barrientos and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela, also in straight sets.

Nishioka made a successful conclusion to a dominant performance at the Korea Open, having emerged as a surprise contender after beating world No. 2 Casper Rudd in the quarter-finals and lucky loser Aleksandar Kovacevic in the semi-finals. With Sunday’s win, his second ever ATP Tour title, Nishioka is expected to reach a career-high ranking of 41.

The first set kicked off with holds from each player, Shapovalov playing especially strong and holding his game at 40 love. In the fourth game, which turned into the longest game of the set at nearly 10 minutes, Nishioka had the chance to break his opponent three times but failed to convert any of them and Shapovalov held his game after five deuces.

This was mirrored again in the seventh game, as Shapovalov had the golden opportunity of triple break points that Nishioka managed to erase to hold his game. Neck-and-neck until 5-4, Nishioka finally made a break and took the set.

The second set saw an early break by Shapovalov in the third game to lead at 3-1. In the sixth game of the set, Shapovalov was challenged by Nishioka, who held him at break point twice, before converting the third break point and leveling the score to 3-3.

After a timeout from Nishioka, the set continued on equal footing for both players before it came down to a deciding tiebreak. The crowd in Seoul was kept on the edge of their seats as the score inched up on both sides before Nishioka triumphed after two match points to end at 7-5.

Nishioka has had one of the best runs this year since turning pro in January 2014. He reached the third round at the Miami Open, a Masters event, in March, and climbed to his first ATP 500 final at the Citi Open in Washington in August. He is currently the top ranked Japanese player.

At the Korea Open, Nishioka not only beat Shapovalov and Ruud, but also toppled fifth seed Daniel Evans earlier in the tournament. With Cameron Norrie, Taylor Fritz and Borna Coric all withdrawing, seventh seed Miomir Kcemanovic and eighth seed Jenson Brooksby were the only competing seeded players not to be knocked out by Nishioka.

This week’s Korea Open was the first ATP Tour event to be held in Korea in 26 years.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]