SOUTH African wildcard Kevin Anderson has won his seventh career title in a runaway three-set victory over Serbian second seed, Filip Krajinovic. The pair faced off in the 2020 ATP Hungarian Open final with the latter in better form, but the former with more runs on the board over his career. That experience proved to be vital in a momentum-swinging contest.

Anderson and Krajinovic fought out an hour-long first set which ended in a toe-for-toe tiebreaker. In the end, it was Anderson who won the tiebreaker 8-6 in a thrilling contest courtesy of back-to-back winners at 6-6. The match was far from over though with Krajinovic turning the contest around in the second, breaking twice consecutively midway through the set to stun his lower ranked opponent and level the match.

What happened next no-one saw coming. Against the flow, Anderson played some of the best tennis he has in two years, completely dismantling Krajinovic’s game play with fierce attacking shots on both sides and great court coverage for a taller player. Before his Serbian opponent could even blink, Anderson was a double break up, and then finished Krajinovic off with a third and eventually a donut final set.

The 7-6 2-6 6-0 triumph was Anderson’s first title of 2020 and second in the past two years. It also handed Krajinovic his second consecutive runner-up trophy in Budapest after finishing second to Marco Berrettini in 2019.

The victory saw Anderson move from 168th in the world up to 106th and on the verge of a top 100 entry. By at least matching his effort from last year, Krajinovic remained in 21st on the ATP Tour rankings.

FINAL RESULT:

[WC] Kevin Anderson (RSA) defeated [2] Filip Krajinovic (SRB) 7-6 2-6 6-0