Fourth seed Jan-Lennard Struff defeated Taylor Fritz 7-5, 6-3 to claim his first career title in front of a German home crowd at the BMW Open on Sunday.
Struff saved three set points in the 10th game of the first set in chilly and rainy conditions in Munich as he reeled off five unanswered games to go a set and 2-0 up.
Third seeded American Fritz, playing his first career final on clay, broke back in the eighth game but Struff wrapped up matters in the next game with an overhead after 1 hour 19 minutes.
"Unbelievable, and to do it on home soil is just incredible,” Struff said on court. "I played good tennis this week, I’m very happy. I beat good guys and I’m just unbelievably happy that I did it today.
“I waited so long. I’m 33 years old and played so long on tour. It’s just an amazing feeling to do it here in Germany."
The maiden success came in his fourth career final, and the ATP said that at 33 years 11 months Struff is the third oldest player to win a first title since this statistic was introduced in 1990.
Struff can make it two Munich titles as he was also set to play the doubles final later Sunday with Andreas Mies against Yuki Bhambri and Albano Olivetti.
“One more to go. I hope we can go all the way in the final now," Struff said.
