Wu Yibing overcame a ferocious bombardment from John Isner to become the first Chinese man to win an ATP Tour title at the Dallas Open on Sunday.
The 23-year-old from Hangzhou saved four match points before claiming a 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (14/12) victory in just under three hours to clinch his maiden ATP victory.
Wu, who has surged up the global rankings in the past year from 1 869th last March to 97th in the world, collapsed on court in delight following his victory.
It came after a pulsating battle with the big-serving Isner, who had threatened to overwhelm the Chinese player with a barrage of 44 aces during the contest.
Isner's eye-popping ace tally was just one short of the all-time record for aces in a three-set ATP Tour match of 45 set by Ivo Karlovic in 2015.
"I made history here for my country. I'm very proud of myself," Wu said in on-court remarks following his win.
"It was a very tough match today. I'm facing, I don't know, 100 aces."
Isner, meanwhile, paid tribute to Wu's performance after the defeat.
"You're going to be a very, very bright spot for the sport of tennis into the future," Isner said.
The 37-year-old Isner was left ruing a golden chance to clinch his 17th title after squandering a match point in the second set when he led 30-40 and 6-5 on Wu's serve.
With the court at his mercy, Isner sunk a return into the net and Wu survived before going on to level with victory in the tie-break to set up a decider.
After neither player was able to engineer a service break in the opening two sets, the pattern continued in the third with the game going serve to set up another tie-breaker.
Isner had another match point opportunity after taking a 6/5 lead in the breaker, but again was unable to take advantage.
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