HOLDING the title as the highest ranked ATP Tour player without a trophy on Tour, Czech Tomas Machac finally shrugged it off over the weekend after securing the Acapulco ATP500 title. Machac defeated Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in straight sets 7-6 6-2 to salute for his maiden success.

In a match that lasted 98 minutes, Machac had to shrug off a first set challenge to run away with the contest in the second, winning the last five games of the match. It almost was not a straight forward win however, with the unseeded Spaniard holding a set point at 6-5 in the first set tiebreaker, before Machac came back to win the last three points and secure the set 8-6.

Davidovich Fokina had a break point in the second game of the second set but failed to capitalise – as did Machac a game later – but despite the Spaniard able to hold on, he would soon see the best of Czech. The eighth seed won 20 of the last 28 points to go from 2-2 to 6-2 in the second set and skip away to a long-awaited title.

The victory sees Machac enter the Top 20 for the first time, having had a career-high of 24th previously. It also moved the Czech up to eighth on the Live Race Ranking, with Davidovich Fokina’s form this year also rewarded with a nine-spot boost up to 39th in the world, as well as 10th in the Live Race.

“The emotions right now are just relief, because it was a tough week. Especially when I have this form, I don’t like to lose in the final,” Machac said post-match. “I’m really happy that I managed to win today because Alejandro was playing really, really good. It was a tough battle.

“I was serving really well. I think without the serve today, I don’t think [it would’ve] been two sets.”

Machac hit eight more winners (29-21) and 11 less unforced errors (25-36) in a convincing victory, dominating his first serve points with a ridiculous 37 of 39 (95 per cent), while only dropping 10 points off his second serve. He only faced the one break point which he saved, and converted two of his three chances in that second set after neither player had a break point in the first set.

His dominance rating of 1.93 showed how much the eighth seed had earned it, with a whopping 72 per cent success rate off any rallies three shots or under. That was helped by Machac’s 11 aces to four, and balanced between his forehand (nine winners) and backhand (eight), while Davidovich Dokina relied purely on his forehand side (13 of 21), and nearyl all of his winners came via ground strokes (16) or aces (4).

Unfortunately while the good news story fell the way of Machac, his Spanish opponent’s title-less drought continued. Davidovich Fokina made it three ATP Tour finals without success, including a second in 2025 from losing the Delray Beach final to Miomir Kecmanovic after holding two championship points.