Roberto Bautista Agut Defeats Juan Martin del Potro to Claim Second Auckland Title

Roberto Bautista Agut walks away a champion. A fight well fought and a victory title well deserved. pic.twitter.com/JNjQMkmD4G

— ASB Classic (@ASB_Classic) January 13, 2018

(January 13, 2018) Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut won his second ASB Classic title, beating Juan Martin del Potro 6-1, 4-6, 7-5. This was Bautista Agut’s seventh career ATP World Tour title.

The 29-year-old, who was the fifth seed, has now won his past three ATP World Tour finals, dating back to 2017 Chennai (d. Medvedev) and 2017 Winston-Salem Open (d. Dzumhur). Bautista Agut might be at his best in Auckland. He improved to 13-2 in the New Zealand city.

Finalist Del Potro, who will enter the top ten next week, was trying to win his second Auckland title (also 2009).

The Argentine will return to the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings on Monday for the first time since 4 August 2014. He fell to 20-10 in tour-level finals.

“It’s been a fantastic week for me,” said the Spaniard. “I gave everything I have on the court this week… It was an unbelievable match today. I’ve been fighting a lot on the court… I played two amazing games at the [end] of the match.”

“I started the match very well. I knew it was going to be important, the beginning of the match. I wanted to play very aggressive. I wanted to be ready… I think I played very aggressive… I tried to have Juan Martin moving around the court.”

“It’s a good start of the year for me,” noted del Potro. “I didn’t expect to reach a final in my first tournament of the year but I played well.”