ATP Tour

Czech Mates: Machac matches Mensik triumph with Adelaide title

Tomas Machac ensured it was a perfect day for Czechia on Saturday, when he overcame Ugo Humbert in the Adelaide International final to join Auckland champion Jakub Mensik in the winners' circle.

Earlier in the day, Mensik defeated Sebastian Baez to win the trophy at the ASB Classic in New Zealand. A little more than 2000 miles away in Adelaide, Machac downed Humbert 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-2 to capture his second ATP Tour title.

"I kept the focus in the third set and kept the level of my tennis very high in the third set. I started to play a little more aggressively and served well," Machac said. "I am very glad that after my injuries, I can be in this moment with the trophy and with a great level of tennis."

It is the first time two Czech men have clinched tour-level titles in the same week since Ivan Lendl and Tomas Smid in 1982.

After a tight first two sets, Machac came out aggressively in the decider to take the match away from Humbert, who was chasing his eighth tour-level title in his 11th final. The eighth seed pulled the Frenchman from side to side with his bruising groundstrokes in the baseline and did not face a break point in the third set, according to Infosys ATP Stats, triumphing after two hours and 25 minutes.

Machac is up 11 spots to No. 24 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings following his perfect week, which also featured a victory against second seed Tommy Paul. Machac is now 2-1 in ATP Tour finals, having won his maiden title in Acapulco last year. He is level at 1-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Humbert and will next head to the Australian Open, where he opens against Grigor Dimitrov.

Humbert earned wins against Terence Atmane, Tallon Griekspoor, Alexander Shevchenko and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina en route to the final. The 27-year-old Frenchman will meet Ben Shelton in the first round in Melbourne.