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Marco Cecchinato defeats Guido Pella to take second ATP title of 2018

Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA

Marco Cecchinato eased to the Croatia Open final victory after defeating Guido Pella 6-2 7-6(4) in Umag.

Cecchinato made it an Italian double with his fellow countryman Fabio Fognini taking the Swedish Open against Richard Gasquet earlier on Sunday.

The match began with both winning their opening games before Cecchinato broke Pella in the fourth game to go 3-1 up in the first.

The next two games continued with serve before Pella was broken once again as the Italian took the first set.

The second set went with serve for the first four games before Pella fought back. The Argentine had lost his previous two finals, at the Rio Open in 2016 and at the Munich Open last year.

Pella wasn't going to hand Cecchinato his second ATP final of the year, and got back into the match, breaking Cecchinato in the fifth game before winning the next on his own serve to go into a 4-2 lead.

While Cecchinato hit back, Pella had break point to go 5-3 up but failed to continue his momentum and the set was level at 4-4. The pair had to be separated from by a second set tie-break which saw Cecchinato take his second ATP title of the year.