Top seed Ben Shelton denied Taylor Fritz back to back titles at the Stuttgart Open when he won the all-American final 6-4, 4-2, 6-4 for his first career grass court title on Sunday.
Shelton triumphed on first match point aftere 1 hour 48 minutes on a packed centre court which included German tennis legend Boris Becker and former football great Lothar Matthäus.
Shelton won the opening set for the first time of the week but eventually had to go the full distance again to get the better of Fritz for the third time in their fourth meeting.
He won a final between the two for the second time this year following the Dallas event in February. Having also won in Munich on clay in Aptil, he now has three 2026 titles and six overall.
Leftie Shelton had saved two match points in his dramatic semi-final on Saturday against Czech Jiri Lehecka.
Fritz had been bidding to become the first man in three decades to win the tournament in successive years. The last man to do so was Austrian Thomas Muster in 1995 and 1996 when the event was played on clay.
Stuttgart was among the first tune-up events for Wimbledon, which starts on June 29.
Shelton and Fritz now head to another big tune-up event in Germany in Halle where Shelton has been drawn to face former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios in the first round.
The Halle tournament stars Monday and is headed by freshly crowned French Open champion Alexander Zverev.
