Newport, United States: American Rajeev Ram won his second ATP Tour title at the same place where he captured his first, defeating Croatian Ivo Karlovic to win the ATP Hall of Fame Championships.
Ram outlasted second seed Karlovic 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 7-6 (7/2) to take the title six years after winning his only prior ATP crown on the same Newport grass by beating countryman Sam Querrey in the final.
“To say that I felt like I’d be the winner at the end of the week .... I had no idea,” said Ram, who moved into the top 100 of the ATP Rankings on Monday. “The first win was more elation, this one is more satisfaction just because I did it again.”
Ram jumped from 161st into the top 90 after taking the top prize of $84,250. He joins John Isner and Bryan Shelton as the only Americans to win multiple Newport crowns.
Ram, 31, became the second ATP champion this season to have done so after saving a match point in the tournament, the other being Denis Istomin at Nottingham.
Ram saved a match point in defeating top seed Isner in the opening round and saved two more in ousting French fifth seed Adrian Mannarino in the quarter-finals.
For Karlovic, it was another heartbreaker at Newport after dropping last year’s Hall of Fame final to Australian Lleyton Hewitt.
Karlovic, 36, settled for his eighth ATP runner-up showing after having earlier this year collected his sixth title, that coming at Delray Beach.
