Alex de Minaur wins maiden ATP 500 title in Acapulco

The Australian produced a thrilling effort to come back from a set down to defeat challenger Tommy Paul 3-6 6-4 6-1 on the hard courts of Acapulco, earning his maiden ATP 500 title in the process.

It was the second straight night that de Minaur was forced to dig deep and turn a match around, as he also lost the opening set in his final four clash against Holger Rune.

With the second set tied at four games apiece, Paul was just two games away from the championship. But de Minaur showed great mental fortitude to hold serve and force a breakpoint opportunity the following game.

There was drama early in the third, as de Minaur saved no less than five break points in the opening game, which proved to be the decisive moment of the match. After that, a deflated Paul couldn't stay with a rampant de Minaur, has he reeled off four more games for a 5-0 lead.

"I know the hard work that's put in to be here and it's good to see the results," the 24-year-old said on court, as per atptour.com.

"It's not always that you win the tournament and you get to finish a week unbeaten, so I'll definitely cherish this going into Indian Wells and Miami.

"Just to kind of stay in the match, especially in the second set... I just dug deep, managed to scrap my way through it.

"And then the first game of the third set was exactly like my semifinal against Holger. So I had that in the back of my mind, I just told myself to keep pushing. If I could keep pushing myself and get out of that game, the momentum was going to switch. I'm very happy I was able to get out of that."

De Minaur had appeared in two ATP 500 finals before Saturday, losing to superstar Alexander Zverev in 2018 in Washington and the legendary Roger Federer in 2019 in Basel.