MARSEILLE, France (AP) ― Juan Martin del Potro beat Michael Llodra 6-4, 6-4 in the Open 13 final Sunday, defeating yet another French player and winning his first title of the season.
Del Potro, 2009 U.S. Open champion, briefly wobbled while down 0-30 and serving for the match, but the fourth-seeded Argentine closed it out when Llodra netted a forehand.
“This is something special for me. I’m very glad to win this tournament in my first (appearance),” he said. “I’m sorry I beat three French players in this tournament. I feel really happy to win here. I hope I can play again next year.”
Llodra, who won in Marseille in 2010, lost his serve once in each set and could not force a single break point chance against del Potro, who hit 11 aces to 10 for the Frenchman.
“He played really, really well today and I had no virtually no chances, except in the last game when he was 0-30 down,” Llodra said. “It was a great game from him, and for my part I was a bit more tired than in recent days.”
Morgan Keegan
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) ― Jurgen Melzer capped his amazing run through the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships with a broken right big toe by beating Milos Raonic of Canada 7-5, 7-6 (4) on Sunday for his fourth career title and first since 2010.
Melzer ran over and hugged his coach, Joakim Nystrom, in the front row after finishing off the victory. Back troubles knocked Melzer from eighth in the world last spring to 38th coming into Memphis.
The Austrian broke his toe Feb. 16 when he caught his foot in a hotel bedspread in the middle of the night. He responded by ousting top-seeded John Isner and No. 3 seed Radek Stepanek before downing Raonic, who was trying to win his third title this year and second in two weeks.
Copa Claro
BUENOS AIRES (AP) ― David Ferrer won the Copa Claro on Sunday, rallying past defending champion Nicolas Almagro 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in an all-Spanish final.
The fifth-ranked Ferrer earned his 13th ATP tour title. He also won in January in Auckland, New Zealand.
Ferrer opened the second set with a break and held serve to send the match to a third set.
The second-seeded Almagro had a couple of chances to break in the second game of the final set, but Ferrer held and broke in the next game and again at 3-1.
Coming into the final, Ferrer hadn’t dropped a set all week. But he couldn’t recover after losing serve at 2-1 in the opening set at Lawn Tennis Club.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
