BREAKING back into the top 100 for the first time since May last year, and at his highest ranking of 72nd since April 16, 2018, Czech Jiri Vesely was a surprise winner of the Tata Open. At 26-years-old, Vesely seems like a veteran having turned pro in 2009 at the age of 16, but the 198cm towering server has shown he still has plenty to give, winning his first ATP Tour title since 2015 where he won his maiden title at Auckland.

Five years on, Vesely has broken through for a second title in Pune, defeating Belarusian, Egor Gerasimov 7-6 5-7 6-3 in two hours and 11 minutes to win the 2020 Tata Open. His serving was simply unbreakable when he got his first serve in, producing a whopping 26 aces and winning 88 per cent of his first serve points. He still won 55 per cent of his second serve points, but considering his lower efficiency of 63 per cent, it gave his opponent a sniff upon return. Gerasimov did end up breaking twice, both in the second set to level the match at a set apiece. The Czech also broke his opponent in the second set, but also in the decider, then holding serve to ensure he could grasp the title.

A little known fact about the rarity of Vesely’s achievement is the fact he is only the eighth player to save match points in two matches during a tournament to come back and take out the title. The Czech faced match points in both his quarter final (Ilya Ivashka) and semi-final (Ricardas Berankis), only to save them, take out the match and progress to win the overall title. Among those on the list include Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Marseille back in 2013, Dominic Thiem at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and most recently, Bernard Tomic at Chengdu two years ago.

By winning, Vesely moved up 35 places in the ATP Tour rankings, while Gerasimov sits just one ahead of him now in 71st, having leapt up 19 spots from 90th in the world. Gerasimov is not scheduled to play anywhere over the next week, while Vesely will take a step down to go compete in the ATP Challenger 125K event at Bengalaru – in order to extend his stay in India – an event he will start favourite for given he is the highest ranked player there. Vesely has a bye in the first round, with a potential matchup against world number 136, Zhang Zhizhen in the third round of the 64-player tournament.