Fabio Fognini‘s love affair with the month of July continued as he secured the Swedish Open title by defeating Richard Gasquet.
The Italian won 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in an hour and 47 minutes to move within reach of a career-high world ranking and strengthen his claim for a place in the season-ending ATP World Tour finals.
Victory in Bastad marks the seventh ATP title of Fognini’s career with every one of them coming at outdoor clay court events and five of them in tournaments held during July.
French world no. 29 Gasquet — who was also bidding for a second ATP title of the year — made the quicker start in Sweden, breaking Fognini in his first service game as the Italian made a series of errors.
But Fognini came roaring back, winning five games in a row before holding to love to take the first set.
The fiery Italian then served three consecutive double faults at the start of the second to hand Gasquet the initiative.
Behind his trademark backhand the Frenchman took advantage of the error and — despite Fognini responding with his own break — saw out two tight deuce games to equal the scores.
But Fognini stepped up a gear in the decider and never looked back after securing the break in Gasquet’s opening service game.
A mix of aggressive striking on the backhand side and uncompromising serving allowed Fognini to get over the line as Gasquet fired a forehand long on his fourth championship point.