SPANISH SUPREMO

VIENNA, Austria (AFP) — Carlos Alcaraz completed an unbeaten season in ATP 500-level events when he cruised past Alex de Minaur 6-1, 6-4 in the Vienna Open on Sunday.

The Spaniard closed out the victory on his first match point on De Minaur's serve, in one hour and 27 minutes to beat the Australian for the seventh time in as many meetings.

De Minaur battled hard.

He took seven games in the first set to deuce but only won one.

In the second set, De Minaur, who entered the final on a ten-match indoor unbeaten streak, saved break points in three of his first four service games. Alcaraz forced the break he needed in the 10th and final game.

"His style is really dangerous," Alcaraz said. "He's really fast, so you have to earn every point. You might hit a winner against everybody, except him. I had to be really focused on that."

"I tried to be aggressive and show him that if he wants to win, he has to play better, more aggressive, more solid, and be smarter than me."

Alcaraz did not drop a single set in five matches in Vienna as he claimed the 28th title of his career.

The victory followed his title in Tokyo four weeks ago.

Alcaraz also won in Doha in February before he was sidelined for almost five months with a wrist injury. All three 500 titles came on hard courts.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion made his return to the courts at the US Open in New York, where he was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

Alcaraz said his form in Vienna had been encouraging.

"Obviously, it has been a really emotional and amazing week for me. I learned a lot, to keep going forward, step by step, playing on indoor courts, and trying to gain more confidence playing on this surface," he said.

Meanwhile, Russia's Diana Shnaider won her first title of the year with a hard-fought victory over Leylah Fernandez in Tokyo on Sunday and couldn't wait to tell her mum all about it.

The world No. 13 beat Canada's Fernandez 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to win the Pan Pacific Open and then went straight to her phone to call home.

"I was calling my mom — I wanted to hear her voice after winning a title and share a first few moments with her," the 22-year-old Shnaider said.

"She said, 'you've just finished, and already you're calling me.'"

It was Shnaider's first title since Monterrey in August last year and the sixth of her career.

She looked to be cruising to victory after winning the first set and taking a 4-0 lead in the second.

World No. 23 Fernandez came back to win the second set, but Shnaider regained control to close out the match.

"It was definitely a tight, close match," Shnaider said.

"It makes me even happier that I was able to fight for the title and in the end win it."

Fernandez went into the final with 16 wins in her previous 20 matches.

That run included victory at the Singapore Open in September and a runner-up finish at last week's Ningbo Open in China behind world No. 1 Elena Rybakina.

Fernandez struggled with her serve, double-faulting five times throughout the match and landing only half of her first serves in the first set.

She got it together when it mattered, though, stunning Shnaider in the second set with some tenacious tennis to even the score at one set each.

Shnaider regained her composure when she returned for the final set, breaking Fernandez's serve twice and clinching the title with her first match point.

She was appearing in her first final of the year after losing in the semi-finals four times before this week.

"Very happy that I was able to win the title," she said.

"It definitely means a lot to me, to my team, and my family to finish on a high note."

Fernandez shed tears as she thanked her family in her on-court interview and said that she had received some "bad news."