MONTE CARLO, April 20: Spanish top seed Juan-Carlos Ferrero retained his crown at the Monte Carlo Masters with a 6-2 6-2 win over Argentina’s Guillermo Coria on Sunday.

The win made Ferrero the first back-to-back winner at the tournament since Austrian Thomas Muster in 1996 and ranks him alongside Ilie Nastase and Bjorn Borg, the only two other players to have won consecutive Monte Carlo titles in the Open era.

Ferrero outshone Coria on a rainy day in the principality, which forced organisers to have the final played over three sets instead of five.

Given the cold and heavy conditions, which made the court slower than earlier in the week, service games were almost irrelevant and the Spaniard was broken twice in the 76 minutes of a one-sided match, to no avail.

It was Ferrero’s eighth career title while Coria was playing in his first Masters Series final and the Spaniard was far too experienced for his opponent.

He broke Coria six times to complete his 12th successive match win of the tournament.

Coria managed to save a match point with the help of the net cord but eventually bowed out to a service winner.

It was Ferrero’s first title this season. The Spaniard, currently third in the world, won his last tournament in Hong Kong in September.

Like last year, Ferrero struggled more in the opening rounds of the tournament than he did towards the end.

The Mosquito lost a set against both compatriot Felix Mantilla and Argentine Gaston Gaudio and came very close to crashing out early on.

Despite hiccups, the final was like the six previous ones in the principality, a one-sided affair.

Catching his opponent off-guard, Ferrero broke Coria twice to lead 3-0. The Argentine, in his sixth career final, fought back to 3-2, but faltered again to lose the first set in 36 minutes.

Coria again found himself 3-0 down in the second set, and he again broke Ferrero back, only to trail 1-5 and earn a game’s reprieve before bowing out in 76 minutes.

Ferrero’s dominance of the tournament will make him a favourite in the clay-court season, which includes next month’s French Open, where he was losing finalist to compatriot Albert Costa last year.—Reuters