Jack Sock of the United States kisses the trophy during the awarding ceremony after defeating Filip Krajinovic of Serbia in the final at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indoor tennis tournament in Paris, France, Nov. 5, 2017. Jack Sock won the title by 2-1. (Xinhua/Chen Yichen)
PARIS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Jack Sock of the United States snatched the last ticket to the ATP Finals later this month with his triumph over Serbian underdog Filip Krajinovic in Paris Masters final here on Sunday.
Sock claimed his first ATP Masters 1000 title as he overcame Krajinovic, who started the campaign from qualifiers, in full sets after nearly two hours.
Nailing his title-winning point due to a poor backhand from Krajinovic, Sock lay on the court with both hands on his face, before running to the stands to celebrate with team members.
"It's a good Sunday for sure," said Sock after making breakthrough at ATP Master 1000 tournaments. He is set to break top 10 in ATP Rankings at No. 9, also finishing as the top American player for the first time in his career.
Sock almost bid farewell to the tournament as he was 5-1 down in the decider against Kyle Edmund in his opening match, while regrouping himself to make a strong comeback and securing his place in Sunday's final.
"Incredible week. Hard to describe honestly. To come back from the deficit I was down in my first match here, and have this trophy next to me now talking to you guys has been an incredible achievement," he added.
Sock came into the tournament as No. 24 in the ATP Race to London, a position quite far from the Finals. However, as he marched on step by step, other contenders fell in early rounds, meaning that the American was just one win away from the season-ending finale.
Perhaps this week was more fascinating for Krajinovic. He was just ranked 77th in ATP Rankings before the tournament, but he stopped the quest of American duo Sam Querrey and John Isner for the ATP Finals berth, also enjoying a walkover in the quarterfinals after year-end world No. 1 Rafael Nadal withdrew due to knee injury, to appear in his first ATP World Tour final.
The Serbian took away the first set 7-5 with his solid baseline performance, while seeing his first service slump in the second set, where Sock won 6-4.
Krajinovic was quite close to let slide three game points into the decider, but he made timely adjustment to seal the win in the first game.
From then on, however, Krajinovic suffered more unforced errors against unstoppable Sock, who won six games in a row to lift up the "Tree of Fanti" trophy in AccorHotels Arena.
The last player who qualified for the Finals by needing to win the Paris Masters title was home player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2008.
Krajinovic will see his world ranking jump to career-high No. 33 after finishing a magical week in Paris.
"It's an amazing week with a lot of good wins. From qualifiers I beat so many good guys with better ranking than me.
"I'm sad that I didn't finish it stronger. But that's tennis, somebody has to win and he was better today," commented Krajinovic.
The doubles champions went to Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. The second seeds got past Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers 7-6 (3), 3-6, 10-6.
