Napolitano beats Hong to clinch men’s singles title

Italy’s Stefano Napolitano came back from a set down to beat South Korea’s Seongchan Hong to clinch the Bengaluru Open at the KSLTA Tennis Stadium here on Sunday. The seventh seed Napolitano, whose last ATP Challenger title came way back in 2016, relied on his booming groundstrokes to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and 23 minutes to take home a prize purse of $18230 (approximately Rs 15 lakh). The title triumph also helped him bag 100 ranking points. Napolitano, who had got the better of former world no. 25 Vasek Pospisil of Canada in the second round and home favorite Sumit Nagal in the semi-finals, struggled with his first serve in the opening set and that meant he wasn’t really able to capitalize on the opportunities and lost his serve twice. But he became more consistent as the match progressed and managed to break his opponent once to force the decider. With the momentum now in his favour, Napolitano broke Hong in the very first game to wrest the advantage. The South Korean stayed in the set by staving off his opponent on his next three service games. However, Napolitano ended Hong’s resistance in the ninth game of the set by hitting an inside-out forehand winner for the first point and completed the triumph with a backhand winner before falling down on his back in celebration. Bengaluru Open was organised by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA). @@@