Basilashvili concludes magical week with Qatar Open trophy

Nikoloz Basilashvili ended his magical week in Doha with another stellar performance to defeat Roberto Bautista Agut in the final.

The final match lasted precisely 90 minutes and it saw Basilasvhili defeat Bautista Agut 7-6(5) 6-2. The opening set was played under very hard conditions as the wind blew for the majority of the set even more so than days prior. The two players squared off with their signature styles. Basilashvili played with power and risk while Bautista was more precision and finesse. They both worked to a degree and both remained unbroken hence we ended up in a tiebreak.

In the tiebreak, it was Basilashvili who took the initiative attacking Bautista repeatedly. In the end, he was able to break through the defense of the Spaniard winning the tiebreak 7-5. It was a confidence boost for Basilasvhili who displayed immense confidence in this game throughout the week.

In the second set, we saw more of the same at the start with both players able to convert their service games. The first real trouble for either player arose at 3-2 for Basilasvhili when Bautista simply could not withstand the pressure of Nikoloz and he lost his serve. That was an additional boost for Basilasvhili who quickly won his next service game to take the 5-2 lead.

That was it for Bautista who could not find straight to come back from that and the Georgian ended it with another break at 6-2. A stellar performance from the resurging Georgian who struggled all of 2020 so this title will mean a lot to him.