Bautista Agut Wins 2nd ATP Title of Season, Cuevas Wins Maiden Title in Bastad
ATP Stuttgart
Roberto Bautista Agut won his second title in as many months in Stuttgart, and his first on clay, in 3 sets over Lukas Rosol 6-3 4-6 6-2. The Spaniard will be ranked in the top 20 soon, and he had some hard fought victories this week. Continuing his career season, he beat Louk Sorenson in 3 sets, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in a third set tiebreak, coming back from a set down, and defending champion Fabio Fognini to reach the final.
Rosol beat Mikhail Youzhny in the semis and Feliciano Lopez in a third set tiebreak in what was a great quarterfinal match. Before that, he beat Philipp Kohlschreiber in straights and Alex Zverev in two close tiebreaks. Stuttgart had some scheduling problems this week because of inclement weather.
Mateusz Kowalczyk/Artem Sitak won the doubles title over Garcia-Lopez and Philipp Oswald.
ATP Bastad
Playing with a protected ranking, Pablo Cuevas won his maiden ATP title in Bastad. He will now be ranked in the top 60 after crushing Joao Sousa 6-2 6-1 to claim the trophy. The Uruguayan number one had some excellent victories this week, including a 6-2 6-2 drubbing of the seeded Jeremy Chardy, and a semifinal upset over Fernando Verdasco in straight sets. In between those matches, he beat Christian Lindell in 3 sets and Renzo Olivo in 2 sets.
Sousa, already top the Portugese player, continues to rise up the rankings as well. He beat Pere Riba, Elias Ymer, Dusan Lajovic and Carlos Berlocq this week, the Berlocq win coming in 3 sets.
Johan Brunstrom and Nick Monroe won the doubles title over Chardy/Olivier Marach.
—Steen Kirby, Tennis East Coast
Tennis Atlantic 