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Australia's Nick Kyrgios has clinched his fifth career tournament title, beating German world number three Alexander Zverev in straight sets to win the Mexican Open in Acapulco.
- Nick Kyrgios will climb to number 43 on the world rankings after defeating Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4
- Kyrgios beat four current and former top-10 players, including Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka
- It is Kyrgios's first ATP Tour title since winning in Brisbane in January last year
Kyrgios had come through a physical week with some intense matches, but he was on top for most of the match, beating Zverev 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 30 minutes.
The win completed a brilliant tournament for Kyrgios, who will jump from number 72 to 43 on the ATP rankings when they are released on Monday.
In the space of seven days, Kyrgios defeated the world number two (Rafael Nadal), the world number three (Zverev), the world number nine (John Isner) and a former world number three and dual Grand Slam title winner in Stan Wawrinka.
The victory was Kyrgios' fifth career title — his most recent win came at the Brisbane International in 2018.
"Well done to Nick, he beat three top-10 players and Stan, who's a Grand Slam [tournament] champion," Zverev said.
"So to beat four players like that in a 500 [Series] event, you deserve to be the champion.
"He's the one who deserves to win the tournament this week."
Kyrgios continued his solid serving from earlier in the tournament, getting 70 per cent of his first serves in, and sending down 13 aces in the final.
He won the first set 6-3 in 40 minutes, before breaking Zverev in the opening game of the second set.
The German player broke straight back for 1-1, but Kyrgios broke again later in the set.
Although Zverev held serve at 3-5 down to make the Australian serve out for the Championship, Kyrgios was up to the task.
"This is an amazing tournament. I loved it two years ago and have some crazy memories here," Kyrgios said.
Kyrgios hit the headlines when he defeated Nadal in a tense match earlier in the tournament.
The Australian had to contend with heckling from the crowd which was strongly supporting Nadal, receiving a warning at one point for telling the crowd to "shut up".
Nadal was incensed when Kyrgios complained to the umpire about the time being taken by the Spanish star between points.
After losing in three sets, Nadal gave a cold handshake at the net, before saying in a post-match press conference that his opponent lacked respect "for the crowd, for his opponent and towards himself".
Kyrgios then upped the ante, going on social media to tell his Instagram followers that he could "smell the blood" when he played Nadal.
Kyrgios then backed up to beat Wawrinka in three sets before defeating big-serving American Isner to qualify for the final.
Topics: sport, tennis, mexico, canberra-2600, act, australia
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