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Del Potro doubles up in Kitzbuhel


Juan Martin del Potro claimed his second ATP title by crushing local favourite Jurgen Melzer 6-2 6-1 in the final of the Austrian Open.

Despite the partisan crowd, No.6 seed Melzer could not turn round his wretched career finals record – the Austrian has only won one title despite having now reached seven ATP Tour finals. No such problems for Del Potro, who dropped just six points on his serve en route to the win in under an hour.

It’s been an impressive fortnight from the 19-year-old Argentinian, after winning his first tour title in Stuttgart last Sunday.

“It’s another dream for me, another tournament,” he said. “In two weeks I played 10 matches and won all of them. I have served very well both weeks and I think I changed a little bit my mindset – I was always concentrating.

“When you play big matches you have to be focused all the time and now I am getting focused on the important points and that’s the difference.”

Juan Martin del Potro is just the second player to win back-to-back tournaments on the tour this season along with Rafael Nadal, who has done so twice. In doing so, he extended Argentinian players’ stranglehold at the clay-court tournament, becoming the fifth to win in the last six years.

In Croatia, top seed Fernando Verdasco captured his second ATP title with a 3-6 6-4 7-6(4) victory over Igor Andreev in the final of the ATP Studena Croatia Open.

The title ends a four-year drought for the 24-year-old Spaniard following his first tour win in Valencia back in 2004. After dropping the first set, Verdasco fought back to level the match with one break of serve securing the second set.

He then served for the match at 5-4 in the third set before Andeev broke back to force a tie-break, but Verdasco won through to continue his curent good run of form.

Having reached a career-high ranking of No.13 on the back of an final appearance in Nottingham and a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon, the Spaniard lost in the semi-finals last week in Bastad.

For Andreev, the result represents a second ATP title gone begging in two weeks, after also finishing runner-up last week in Gstaad.


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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.