Jannik Sinner beats Alex de Minaur in National Bank Open final for 1st Masters 1000 title

For the first 52 minutes of the National Bank Open men's final, Jannik Sinner seemed content to hover around the baseline and fire ground strokes left and right.

He finally tried something different late in the first set. A rare backspin shot just dropped over the net and an outstretched Alex de Minaur couldn't return it.

Sinner would complete the service break on set point and was on his way to a 6-4, 6-1 win in Toronto for his first career Masters 1000 series title.

"Sometimes you have to change it up a little bit," Sinner said. "And I think today this was one of the solutions."

It was Sinner's second ATP Tour title of the season. He improved to 5-0 in head-to-head meetings with de Minaur, who made his first career Masters 1000 final appearance.

WATCH | Sinner tops de Minaur for NBO title in Toronto: 

Sinner was the first Italian to reach the men's singles final of this tournament in the Open era. He'll jump two positions to a career-high No. 6 in the new world rankings.

"We were prepared for a long fight," Sinner said. "The first set was very important. In the second set, I was hitting a little bit more freer.

"So yeah, it was a good day in the office."

The seventh-seeded Sinner forced the 18th-ranked de Minaur to play defence for most of the match at Sobeys Stadium.

Each player had early breaks as they adjusted to breezy conditions on centre court.

Sinner broke de Minaur on his first opportunity but some unforced errors proved costly as the Australian got back on serve at 3-4.

Needing a hold to stay in the set, de Minaur lost all four points of the critical 10th game.

Sinner ran him from corner to corner on the opening point and a de Minaur mis-hit followed. His floater made it love-40 and Sinner converted on his first set point.