Alex de Minaur has claimed his first title of the year, winning the Washington Open final at the second time of asking.

The Australian men’s No.1 fought gallantly to claim an enthralling contest in the US capital over fellow 26-year-old Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 5-7 6-1 7-6 (7-3), in just over three hours.

A workman-like tiebreaker capped off a week full of positives, and 10th career title success, for de Minaur ahead of next month’s US Open in New York.

But it meant Fokina fell just short of claiming his first ATP Tour title. After the match, as a visibly devastated Fokina buried his head in his towel and wept, de Minaur walked over and sat beside him on his chair and comforted him.

“It’s brutal,” he can be heard saying on footage.

Seventh seed de Minaur, who lost in straight sets to Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the 2018 Washington final, improved to a tour-leading 21 hard-court wins for the season by beating Frenchman Corentin Moutet in the semis.

On Monday (AEST), Fokina, the Spanish 12th seed, was broken early in the opening set but responded immediately for 2-2. He gained the advantage again in the 11th game before serving it out in 66 minutes.

It lit a fire under the Aussie, who was playing his first event since being ousted from Wimbledon by Novak Djokovic. He went up 3-0 in the second and broke again to take it to a third set.

But he dropped serve for 3-1 in the decider, before breaking back when Fokina was serving for the championship at 5-4.

The “Demon” went on to claim a breaker littered with unforced errors by his opponent.

“I want to start with Alejandro. As I told you and your team, you’re way too good to not have one of these,” he said after the match.

“It’s coming for sure. You deserved it today. I just got lucky. You are a hell of a competitor and player. No one on the tour wants to play you.

“This is not the end. It’s only going up for you.”

Fokina paid tribute to his opponent afterwards.

“I want to say congrats to Alex. He deserved the win,” he said.

“He was fighting every f—ing ball. Sorry for the word.”

De Minaur will return to world No.8 on the back of reaching Monday’s final.

“It’s something about this court. I did it in 2018 … and honestly, I just kind of knew I could do it,” he said.

De Minaur saved four match points against Andrey Rublev that year but lost in the decider.

“I just backed myself and I told myself to commit no matter what and if I lost this match it was going to be on my terms,” he said on Monday.

“Today it went my way. I’ve had a couple of brutal ones not go my way, so I’m glad this one went my way.”

De Minaur’s 42 wins at ATP 500 level since the start of the 2023 season are the most by any player on tour.

-with AAP