Shaking off back spasms to blast 18 aces, Australia's Nick Kyrgios kept his composure and captured the ATP Washington Open title Sunday, defeating Russia's 10th-ranked Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4).
The 24-year-old Aussie, who struggled through the opening set, claimed the $365,390 top prize and his sixth career ATP crown at the US Open tuneup event.
"This is probably my best memory of a final," Kyrgios said.
"I left it all on the court." Kyrgios, 5-1 this year against top-10 rivals, won his second title of the season after Acapulco in March and will jump 25 positions to 27th in Monday's new rankings, his first top-30 appearance in 43 weeks.
"This has been one of the greatest weeks of my life. I've made massive strides," Kyrgios said.
"This whole week has been amazing. It's a week I won't forget."
Known for his fiery temperament and inconsistency, Kyrgios was resilient all week, breaking racquets but holding his emotions together — "super proud" of his composure.
"In the past six months, it's crazy to think how much I've been able to turn it around," Kyrgios said.
"I lost faith that I could still have weeks like this and be happy. I've got to thank (my family) for not losing faith.
"I just wanted to clean myself up and have a healthy attitude. I showed what I can do this week."
While saying his best memory of the week was "how professional I was off the court," Kyrgios also noted, "I've got a long way to go." American Jessica Pegula captured her first WTA singles title by ripping Italy's Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-2 in the Washington women's final.
The 25-year-old daughter of NFL Buffalo Bills owner and natural gas magnate Terry Pegula took a $43,000 top prize.
Kyrgios won a match that featured no break points or deuces after 94 minutes with back-to-back aces, the last his tournament-best 110th of the week.
Medvedev, 23, was broken only twice this week but lost his lone sets to Kyrgios. He'll equal his career-best ranking of ninth on Monday.
Kyrgios denied Medvedev on set point with a 124-mph ace, then hit a passing winner and won it when Medvedev sent a forehand wide. In the last breaker, two Kyrgios aces made his Washington's first unseeded ATP champion since 2011.