The young American Ben Shelton won his fifth career Tour title and second of the year, after triumphing at the ATP 500 tournament in Munich. Shelton, number 2 in the Bavarian rankings, also lifted his second clay court trophy after defeating 4th seed Flavio Cobolli (Italy) 6:2, 7:5 in the final, BTA reported.
Exactly one year ago, Shelton reached the final at the same venue, but was then defeated by the home team's representative Alexander Zverev, but today he did not make a similar mistake and recorded his first victory over a player from the top 20 in the clay court rankings. No less prestigious is the fact that Shelton becomes only the fifth American to win on clay outside the United States this century. The 23-year-old tennis player joins greats like Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, as well as Sam Querrey and Sebastian Korda.
In the end, Shelton will receive 478,935 euros (563,922 US dollars). Cobolli will collect 257,705 euros (303,434 US dollars) as the loser. Apart from that, the American will also take home a BMW iX3, an all-electric car.
The American started very aggressively and with two breaks in the beginning took a 4-0 lead, and then could have closed the set with a third break, but in the end did it with a serve. Koboli tried to react in the second half and held the balance until 5:5, but in the final set he collapsed again on his own serve and lost in two sets in an hour and a half.