Djokovic won his 89th title in Tel Aviv, unseeded players reigned supreme in Sofia and Seoul

Three ATP 250 tournaments culminated over the weekend. With Novak Djokovic needing to accumulate points towards his participation in the Tournament of Champions, he took part in this lower level event in Tel Aviv. And he dominated it without any problems. He also played in Sofia and Seoul, where the main favourites were outclassed by unseeded tennis players.

The Serbian holder of 21 Grand Slam trophies was the biggest star of the Israeli Tel Aviv Watergen Open and did not disappoint his fans. He played four matches in the second largest city of the Jewish state without losing a single set.

In the opening round Djokovic had a free draw, in the second round he defeated the Spaniard Andújar. He went on to beat Canadian Pospisil and Russian Safiullina on his way to the final. In the final match, he challenged the tournament’s number two, Cilic.

The clash against the Croatian lasted an hour and a half and the current world number seven won it after sets 6: 3 and 6: 4. The native of Belgrade won his 89th ATP title. He is also the first tennis player to triumph on all surfaces this year.

In the Bulgarian capital, the Sofia Open took place, where Hüsler, the 95th player in the world, celebrated his first trophy on the highest circuit. The Swiss outlasted the higher-ranked Rune by more than sixty places in the final.

After defeating the talented 19-year-old Dane 6:4 in the first set, he also managed a dramatic tiebreak at the end of the second set. Hüsler dominated the shortened game 10:8.

With his success in the final round, he followed his previous victories over Frenchman Blancaneaux, Spaniard Carreño-Busta, Pole Majchrzak and the semi-final victory over Italian Musetti.

As in Tel Aviv and Sofia, Seoul was also played on a hard surface, but with the difference that in this case it was an indoor tournament. In the South Korean capital, the unseeded participant was also happy.

On his way to the final, Nishioka successively defeated Britain’s Evans, his Japanese compatriot Daniel, Norway’s tournament number one Ruud and Kovacevic from the USA. He then challenged Shapovalov of Canada in the final.

It was therefore a battle between the world number 54 and the 24th ranked tennis player. The Japanese won 6:4 and 7:6 against paper odds. Nishioka claimed his second ATP tournament title and remains unbeaten in his final matches at Asian events to date.

In the week of October 3-9, two men’s tennis events of higher category will take place, namely the “Five Hundreds” in the capitals of Japan and Kazakhstan. The outdoor Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo and the indoor Astana Open will again be played on hard surfaces.

Source: ATP, Tennis Portal