(Reuters) – American Tennys Sandgren brushed aside Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-4 6-2 to win his first ATP title at the ASB Classic in Auckland on Saturday.
Sandgren, the world number 63, took one hour and 18 minutes to see off his opponent, who is ranked 30 places below him, converting his second championship point when Norrie went long with a forehand off his second serve.
The American carved out 12 break point opportunities against Norrie’s serve and converted four of them, while also sending down seven aces in the final warm-up before the Australian Open, where he reached the quarter-finals last year.
“I’m a little bit lost for words. It’s been a lot of work, a lot of training,” said Sandgren, who appeared for his on-court interview in a Johnny Cash T-shirt sporting the legend “American Rebel”.
“A lot of sacrifice goes into even making a final,” he added. “To get a win, I’m kind of speechless.
“I’m just grateful, just grateful to be out here to play and compete. Just to be healthy and out here playing is good. Just excited and happy to be playing well.”
Norrie was undone by inconsistency, making 29 unforced errors to Sandgren’s 17 and winning just 59 percent of his first serves as his challenge fizzled out in the face of Sandgren’s all-court game.
“I just want to say a big congrats to Tennys, I know myself and my team have a lot of respect for you and you’ve had a lot of setbacks in your career with injury so congrats for today, you were too good,” Norrie said.
Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty