Fabio Fognini claims hard-fought victory to seal Swedish Open title

Italian Fabio Fognini won the Swedish Open title in Bastad after defeating France’s Richard Gasquet in Sunday’s final.

Third seed Fognini continued an impressive run of form by taking the match 6-3 3-6 6-1.

Fognini won the Brasil Open five months ago, and his consistency – on clay courts especially – again surfaced.

The world number 15 took just under two hours to edge out Gasquet, who had his chances in the match but could not make them count.

After dominating the opening set, Fognini then served three successive double faults as Gasquet never lost the initiative in setting up a decider.

But Fognini ramped things up in set three, making his impressive backhand work with telling effect, and Gasquet could find no way back.

There was more Italian success at the Croatia Open in Umag, where Marco Cecchinato beat Argentina’s Guido Pella 6-2 7-6 (7/4) to clinch the title.

The result will continue Cecchinato’s rise up the world rankings to inside the top 25.

Pella provided one of the tournament’s shocks when he knocked out sixth seed Robin Haase in the semi-finals, but he could not rediscover that form, and Cecchinato proved too much of a hurdle.

American Steve Johnson, meanwhile, won the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island, beating first-time ATP world tour finalist Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-5 3-6 6-2.

Ramanathan was aiming to become the first Indian winner of an ATP event since Leander Paes 20 years ago, but Johnson’s serve proved a potent weapon as he claimed 83 per cent of first-serve points.

Johnson’s victory means that he climbs 14 places to 34th in the world rankings.