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| October 28, 2002 | Monday | Sha’aban 21,1423 |
Paradorn outpowers Rios to win title
STOCKHOLM, Oct 27: Thai seventh-seed Paradorn Srichaphan scored his second title win of the year when he defeated Chile’s Marcelo Rios 6-7 6-0 6-3 6-2 at the $650,000 Stockholm Open final Sunday.
Paradorn overpowered the Chilean sixth seed with his heavy ground strokes and forced Rios to play from several metres behind the baseline to grab his second title of the year. He won his first ATP tour title at Long Island in August.
From the second set onwards Rios was rarely allowed to dictate rallies from inside the baseline with the Thai earning several key points on his powerful serves.
Rios had to run a lot to keep pace with Paradorn and it paid off in the first set when he clinched the tiebreak 7-2 on five straight points.
But a lapse of concentration by Rios gave Paradorn a 2-0 break in the second set, who then capitalised and routed the former world number one 6-0 to tie the match.
Rios failed to take advantage of two break points in Paradorn’s opening serve game in the third set and was then broken in the fourth game to hand the Thai a 3-1 lead.
Both players then held serve with Paradorn saving several break points on the way to take the set 6-3.
The Thai scored a double break in the last set and clinched the match 6-2 on his first match point, serving out to love.
BASEL (Switzerland): Argentine David Nalbandian comprehensively outplayed Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 6-4 6-3 6-2 Sunday to become the first Latin American to win the $1 million Swiss Indoors title in 24 years.
In the first all-South American final in the tournament’s history, the sixth-seeded Wimbledon finalist secured his second title of the year with a devastating destruction of the seventh-seeded Gonzalez, winning in just one hour and 37 minutes inside Basel’s St Jakobshalle.
ST PETERSBURG (Russia): Third-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean clinched his first title of the year by beating Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-5 6-4 in the St Petersburg Open final Sunday.
Grosjean won a tight opening set when Youzhny netted a backhand volley on the first break point in the match, which came at 30-40 in the 12th game.
The Frenchman then went ahead 4-2 in the second, breaking Youzhny at love in the sixth game, but the unseeded Russian fought back by taking his opponent’s serve in the next game.
Grosjean, however, earned a decisive break three games later to secure his third career ATP title and take home the $137,000 first prize.
VIENNA: Belgium’s Justine Henin ended unseeded American Alexandra Stevenson’s hopes of a first career title with a crushing 6-3 6-0 victory in the final of the Generali Ladies Linz WTA tournament Sunday.
Fourth seed Henin, 20, converted her first breakpoint just half an hour into the opening set before overpowering her unseeded opponent two days after Stevenson had beaten top seed Jennifer Capriati in the quarter-finals.
Stevenson was hampered by a left thigh injury that prompted her to leave the court for treatment when trailing 3-0 in the second set.
It was Henin’s sixth career title.—Reuters
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