Alexander Zverev wins second ATP title at Sud de France

Fourth-seeded German Alexander Zverev seized his second ATP World Tour title on Sunday by posting a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over home favorite Richard Gasquet at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.

The 19-year-old Zverev needed only 88 minutes to dispatch the third-seeded Gasquet, who was bidding for his third straight tournament title and fourth in five years. Gasquet won in 2013, 2015 and 2016 and finished as a finalist in 2014 to countryman Gael Monfils.

"It was a difficult match," the 30-year-old Gasquet said. "It was close during the first set. I had a bad start, he quickly broke me at the beginning of the match. It's not easy to break such a good player twice. I managed to come back, but he broke again. I made a few mistakes. He hits the ball really hard on both sides and has a pretty incredible service. He deserves his victory today. But overall I'm happy about this week."

Gasquet had difficulty keeping up with Zverev in their first-ever meeting, losing the first-set tie-break before being broken in the eighth game of the second set.

Zverev converted his fourth match point and served out the victory to claim his first title since defeating three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka at the St. Petersburg Open in September.

Zverev's day wasn't done as he joined his brother, Mischa, in outlasting Fabrice Martin and Daniel Nestor in the doubles final. Zverev was the first player to win the singles and doubles title at the same tournament since Lleyton Hewitt accomplished the feat at Newport in 2014.

"It's great to win singles and doubles," Alexander Zverev said "I'm very happy the way we played. We only dropped one set in the tournament. I think it was a very successful tournament for the Zverevs."

Zverev has been playing excellent tennis of late, recently pushing 14-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal to five sets in the third round of the Australian Open.