MOSCOW — Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain came back from a set down to beat Italy’s Fabio Fognini and win the Kremlin Cup on Sunday.
Carreno Busta won his second career title 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 despite having a medical timeout for a leg strain midway through the second set, though he said the injury was not serious.
Fognini saved two match points in the final game before Carreno Busta secured the win, dropping to his knees in celebration.
"I lost the first set but I continue fighting and believing in myself," he said. "Maybe that’s the key, to continue fighting all the time."
Carreno Busta said lapses of concentration on Fognini’s part had smoothed his path to victory. "Sometimes he is not focused on the match. I know that," he said. "Sometimes he’s very angry or sometimes he’s not at his level."
The victory caps a strong season for the 25-year-old Spaniard, who won his first ATP title at the Winston-Salem Open in August and reached two more finals. He credits a change of coach in November 2015 with transforming his game.
"I’m trying to believe in myself more than before," he said. "We play more aggressive with my forehand. I think it’s very important if I want to be with the top players."
Carreno Busta is 2-2 in career finals, while Fognini drops to 4-8.
Also Sunday, the Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah won the doubles title with a 7-5, 4-6, 10-5 victory over Austria’s Jurgen Melzer and Julian Knowle.
On Saturday, Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova won the women’s Kremlin Cup title, beating Australia’s Daria Gavrilova 6-2, 6-1.
