Ben Shelton has repeated as men’s singles champion at the National Bank Open.
The tournament’s fifth from the United States seed surged past fellow countryman Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 7-6 (4) in a dominant display on centre court at IGA Stadium.
Shelton earned his second career ATP Masters 1000 title after winning last year’s event in Toronto, moving up to sixth in the tour’s rankings.
The 23-year-old was untouchable on serve, striking the ball at 230 kilometres per hour without surrendering a break point throughout a match that lasted one hour 27 minutes.
Nakashima, seeded 28th, won just 17 per cent of his return points in his first career final at the 1000 level.
The 25-year-old matched power for power in the second set, forcing a tiebreak after fighting back from 30-0 down with a mix of aces, sliced volleys and punishing forehands in the final game.
The two remained square until Shelton smacked a cross-court forehand to take a 4-2 advantage and held serve for a 6-3 lead. He made good on his second championship point, ripping a forehand down the line before flexing his muscles and sharing hugs with his team courtside.
Shelton broke Nakashima in the first set to take a 4-3 lead, stepping up on his second serve and firing a forehand winner.
The big-serving lefty only elevated his play from there. After comfortably holding, Shelton relentlessly defended along the baseline and whipped a pair of blistering passing shots to break a second time and take the set in 32 minutes.
Nakashima started the match in dominant form on serve, striking four aces to take the first game, before Shelton solved him in the seventh.
Earlier, Brazil’s Rafael Matos and Orlando Luz defeated Croatia’s Mate Pavic and El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo in the men’s doubles final.
The 12-day, $9.42-million tournament drew a record attendance of more than 309,492 despite having five sessions interrupted by rain and several marquee dropouts.
Top-ranked Jannik Sinner, No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic all missed the tournament, while headliner Félix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal withdrew with a back injury hours before his opening match.
Alexander Zverev, the top seed, was then bounced in the second round and Shelton became the highest seed from the round of 16 onward as youngsters Rafael Jodar, Joao Fonseca and Learner Tien made breakout runs.
The men’s tournament shifts to Toronto next year, while Montreal hosts the women’s event.
