The women took a week off to fight for the flags, but the men were vying for titles this past week.
Marin Cilic defended his title at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors with a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 win over Michael Berrer. After the match, Marin explained that second-set hiccup that went Berrer’s way.
“I was surprised with the level of [Berrer’s] game. It’s not that I underestimated him; it’s just that I did not expect this level of tennis in his first major final. There were no ups and downs in his game; I had to earn every point.”
Marin currently has a 15-1 record for 2010. He won Chennai and made it to the semis of the 2010 Australian Open.
South Africa and South America: See the other two singles winners after the cut…
And in Johannesburg, lefty Feliciano Lopez won his second career ATP title (the last one came in 2004) at the SA Tennis Open. He beat Stephane Robert 7-5, 6-1. Lopez overcame the city’s high altitude — and finals jitters — before running away with the second set.
“[Stephane] had nothing to lose, all the pressure was on my side. So that’s probably why I played in this way in the first set. After I took the first set, everything was completely different. I started playing much better and my shots were working perfectly, from the baseline, net, everywhere.”
TSF fave Juan Monaco repeated his runner-up finish at the Movistar Open (back in 2008) by losing to Brazilian (and lefty) Thomaz Bellucci 2-6, 6-0, 4-6 in this past weekend’s final.
(images via Getty)
Monaco is sexy and Bellucci is beautiful. I would have loved to see that match.