Matthew Ebden clinched his maiden singles ATP Challenger title by overcoming defending Aegon Trophy champion Benjamin Becker in Sunday’s final at Nottingham.
The Australian wrestled the crown from the world No. 97 in three tough sets, 7-5 4-6 7-5, in just over two hours.
Ebden saved seven break points at 3-3 in a tight first set, before going on to break Becker’s serve to seal the set.
The Australian was broken early in the second set, and neither player wavered for much of the third.
But in a repeat of the first set, Ebden piled the pressure on the German and broke his serve to seal the title.
“No one was going to give anything away out there,” Ebden said.
“In the big points during the match you had to be the one attacking, because being on the front foot was the only way to win it.”
It was Ebden’s second final appearance, and win, this year having claimed the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Jarmila Gajdosova in January.
The former world No. 61, who has slipped to 122 since his peak in October 2012, had his coach Peter McNamara – the former world No. 7, two-time Wimbledon doubles and Australian doubles champion – sitting in the stands.
After the win, Ebden said the months of trying to fine tune his game had paid off in the East Midlands. Before getting on grass in Nottingham, the Australian had been stopped at the quarter-final stage of three ATP Challenger events in Asia.
“Towards the end of last year I looked at what held me back when peaking at 60, and I’ve dropped back a little since then,” Ebden said.
“Sometimes you have to take one step back to take two steps forward.
“I’ve started working with a new coach Peter McNamara and we have put things in place.
“We both knew it would take time to make some changes - there were a few things that were uncomfortable at the start, but I just had to work through them because the end result would be better.
“It is nice to see the improvements and changes that we’ve been working on are just starting to come through in my match play consistently.”
Ebden will remain in Nottingham to complete his Wimbled preparations in the Aegon Challenge starting Monday.
Becker, who had not strung two consecutive wins together since February before returning to defend his Aegon Trophy title, said the defeat summed up his year to date.
“It is frustrating, I’ve lost so many tight matches like this already this season,” Becker said.
“I was hoping to turn it around and win a tight match like this in the end, but it didn’t happen and I will have to move on and try do it in the next match at Queen’s.
“Today I didn’t find a happy medium between being aggressive and not making too many mistakes.”