HAPPY FELICIANO LIFTS SECOND TITLE

Johannesburg, South Africa - February 7, 2010 (Pictures: Reg Caldecott)

Feliciano Lopez became the first Spaniard to win the SA Tennis Open when he downed Frenchman Stephane Robert 7-5 6-1 at Montecasino yesterday.

At the start of the tournament most people were expecting a Frenchman and a Spaniard to fight out the final and that is exactly what they got. However, it was not the two everybody expected. In Saturday’s semifinals third-seeded Lopez put out No 1 Gael Monfils of France while eighth seed Robert ousted No 2 David Ferrer of Spain.

The first set was pretty tight but left-handed Lopez never faced a break point the entire match while Robert was often struggling to hold. However, when the break came it was somewhat fortuitous for the No 3 seed. With Robert serving in the 12th game, Lopez moved to 0-40 before Frenchman fought back to hold a game point.

But Lopez kept coming back and finally, on his sixth set point, his forehand clipped the top of the net and dribbled over. “You know, I was under pressure all the time,” said Robert. “My only chance was to get to a tie-breaker and hope I could win the set that way. It was unfortunate how the break happened, but that is tennis.”  

Once the first set was behind him Lopez was in full flight while much of the stuffing had gone out of Robert. The Spaniard raced into a 5-0 lead and at that point he already had one hand on the R600 000 winner’s cheque.

Robert faced his first championships point in the next game but managed to snuff it out with an ace. The second came up a game later when Robert sent a forehand wide and the Spaniard finally won his first tournament since Vienna in 2004 when the Frenchman netted a Lopez volley.

“In the first set I was a little nervous. I had so many break points but I wasn’t taking my chances,” said Lopez.  “Once I took the first set I felt confident and my game started working.”

Lopez now moves on to Rotterdam but will have to play world No 6 Nikolay Davydenko in the first round. “I’m in good shape. We have played before and we’ve had some good matches. He’ll be the favourite and I have nothing to lose.” As it happens, Lopez leads the head-to-head 4-1.

He was also full of praise for the tournament. “We play a number of 250 series events around world and I think this is one of the best. The hotel was good, the organisation was excellent and the courts were great.

“I just hope that a Spaniard winning here is a good omen for our soccer team later this year when the World Cup starts,” quipped Lopez.    

The doubles title went to Rohan Bopanna of India and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan who beat the Slovakian/Israeli duo of Karol Beck and Harel Levy 2-6 6-4 10-5 (champions tiebreaker)