SHENZHEN, September 30, 2018

Yoshihito Nishioka has claimed his maiden title on the ATP World Tour, winning the 2018 Shenzhen Open. The qualifier from Japan fought past unseeded Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 in Sunday’s final of the ATP 250 hard-court event.

Appearing in his first title match, Nishioka withstood 12 aces, breaking his opponent’s serve four times to prevail after two hours and 20 minutes.

Mission accomplished 🚀🇯🇵

World No.171 and qualifier @yoshihitotennis beats Herbert 7-5 2-6 6-4 to claim his first ATP title in Shenzhen.#shenzhenopen pic.twitter.com/ptuwVrUWwF

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 30. September 2018

“I believe this is the beginning,” said Nishioka. “[Now I will] try to win [ATP World Tour] 500 and [Masters] 1000 events… This is a very happy [moment] and I believe I can win more.”

Herbert was bidding to win his first ATP World Tour title after he had finished runner-up at the 2015 Winston-Salem Open.

“[I am] really disappointed not to lift the trophy, but for sure it has been a great week,” said Herbert. “I played five good matches and I came out four times with a win. It has been a great effort, my level was quite high so I am quite happy with that… it is a really positive week.”

McLachlan/Salisbory crowned doubles champions

Earlier in the day, Ben McLachlan of Japan and Joe Salisbury from Great Britain took the doubles title. The top seeds beat Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and US-American Rajeev Ram 7-6(5), 7-6(4). The encounter lasted one hour and 43 minutes.

“It is a bit of a surprise,” said Salisbury. “Even though we were top seeds, there were a lot of other good teams playing here. [It was] our first time playing together but we know each other well, and I think we play, in our game styles, quite similar… We felt confident we were going to match up well together.”