Italy’s Marco Cecchinato claimed his third career title on Sunday with a 6-1, 6-2 win over home favourite Diego Schwartzman who had stunned defending champion Dominic Thiem in the semi-finals of the Argentina Open.

World No 18 Cecchinato, 26, who famously defeated Novak Djokovic on his way to the French Open semi-finals last year, has won all three of his titles on clay after Budapest and Umag in 2018.

American Reilly Opelka blasted 43 aces past Canadian qualifier Brayden Schnur on the way to capturing his first ATP Tour title at the New York Open on Sunday.

Opelka outlasted Schnur 6-1, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (9/7) one minute beyond two hours in the first ATP championship match for either competitor.

Opelka, ranked 89th, finished two aces shy of Ivo Karlovic’s ATP best-of-three-set record of 45 from Halle in 2015 for the second consecutive match, having also smashed 43 in beating US top seed John Isner in the semi-finals.

In all, Opelka hit nine aces in the first set and 17 in both the second and third sets, the last of them on the deciding point. He suffered only two double faults and never faced a break point.

Opelka made 74% of his first serves, winning 61-of-69 first-serve points and 14-of-24 off his second serve.

The 21-year-old US ball-blaster denied 154th-ranked Schnur, a 23-year-old from Montreal, a fairy-tale finish to the greatest week of his career. The last alternate into qualifying had lost all five tour-level matches he had played prior to this week’s run to finals.

Both players will rise from their career-high rankings of this week after a dramatic title showdown.

With AFP inputs