Ferrer Takes Rio, Karlovic Bags Las Vegas and Gilles Simon Wins at Marseille

In the final of the ATP 500 tournament in Rio, David Ferrer made short work of Fabio Fognini to win his 23rd ATP tour-level title and set a new record of 7 titles in Latin America’s Golden Swing. The 32-year-old Spaniard, who has also won 3 times each in Acapulco and Buenos Aires, surpassed the 6-title existing record of compatriot Nicolas Almagro. Two other two ATP 250 events were also concluded on Sunday. The Delray Beach crown at Las Vegas was claimed by Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic and Gilles Simon emerged victorious at Open 13 in Marseille. In a notable doubles final at Delray Beach, America’s Bryan brothers wrote their names on another ATP trophy, their 104th as a team, when they beat the second-seeded Indo-South African pair of Leander Paes and Raven Klaasen in the final on Sunday.

Playing a dominant game against Fabio Fognini, David Ferrer hardly needed to break sweat in his 6-2, 6-3 victory over the Italian. The Sunday crowd at the Jockey Club Brasileiro included Brazilian sports legends like Gustavo Kuerten, Ronaldo and Cesar Cielo, when the World no.9 Ferrer took to the court for the title clash with Fognini. The Spaniard broke Fognini twice in the first set and once in the second for a surprisingly easy victory. The doubles crown at Rio was won by Slovak Martin Klizan and Austrian Philipp Oswald. Klizan/Oswald had some trouble in the first set that went to the tiebreak but finally won 7-6, 6-4 against Spain’s Pablo Andujar and Austria’s Oliver Marach. In a WTA event also organized simultaneously, Sara Errani claimed the women’s singles crown by defeating Slovakia’s Anna Schmiedlova 7-6, 6-1.

At Delray Beach Open in Las Vegas, world no.29 Ivo Karlovic scored an easy 6-3, 6-3 victory in the final against Donald Young of USA. After Jimmy Connors won an ATP tour-level title in Tel Aviv 26 years ago, Karlovic is the oldest player at almost 36 years of age. Karlovic will celebrate his 36th birthday next week. The fourth-seeded Karlovic fired 13 aces and saved all seven break points against him as he denied the first ATP title to the 25-year-old American. The doubles crown at Delray Beach was bagged by top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan in their 155th doubles final. The brothers captured their 104th title as a team, defeating the no.2 seeds India’s Leander Paes and South Africa’s Raven Klaasen 6-3, 3-6, 10-6. The brothers were playing their first match after they lost in the third round of the Australian Open last month. The game was evenly poised and could only be decided in the match tiebreaker. The tiebreaker began with Paes/Klaasen jumping to a 3-0 lead before the Bryans found their game and overpowered the Indian/South African duo.

The Open 13 ATP250 tournament at Marseille witnessed an all-French final for the fifth time in the tournament’s history. It was a hard fought encounter between fifth seed Gilles Simon and the seventh seed Gael Monfils. Simon won the first set 6-4 but Monfils bounced back to take the second 6-1. Monfils looked more dangerous as the third set began but ultimately he paid the price of committing 54 unforced errors. Simon, on the other hand, was steadier in his approach but missed a break opportunity early in the final set. In the 12th game of the decider, Monfils was merely two points away from the title victory but Simon’s consistency prevailed in forcing the tie-break. After nearly 2½ hour long battle, Simon sealed a deserved 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 victory against Monfils. A few days ago at ABN AMRO world tennis tournament, world no. 17 Simon had beaten Andy Murray in the quarterfinals to snap a 12-match losing run against the Scot. The men’s doubles title at Marseille was claimed by Marin Draganja of Croatia and Henri Kontinen of Finland. The Croat/Finn duo defeated UK’s Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marray 6-4, 3-6, 10-8 to make it their second ATP title in a row after winning at PBZ Zagreb a few days ago.