TENNIS ATP TOUR – Philipp Kohlschreiber won the Dusseldorf Open, his fifth career title. He defeated Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic 6-2 7-6(4) in 1h 14m. Ernests Gulbis won his sixth career title today at the Open de Nice Cote d’Azur, defeating Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-1 7-6(5) in 1h 41m. Joshua Bosco
ATP Dusseldorf
After winning two matches yesterday (his quarter-final match was moved from Thursday to Friday due to bad weather), today Philipp Kohlschreiber went on to win the Dusseldorf Open, his fifth career title. He defeated Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic 6-2 7-6(4) in 1h 14m.
After saving a couple of break points in the second game of the match, Kohlschreiber went on to break the Croatian twice to take an unassailable 5-1 lead and then close the set at the first opportunity winning it 6-2 in just 27 minutes. In the second set the receiver won only 4 points in the first six games of service; the German then broke Karlovic to go 4-3 up only to be broken back in the following game. In the tiebreak that followed Kohlschreiber immediately broke Karlovic and never looked back, winning the match 6-2 7-6.
Both players will now travel to Paris for the French Open. Kohlschreiber, who is the No.28 seed, will play Spaniard Pere Riba in the first round while Karlovic is up against No.11 seed Grigor Dimitrov: but after today’s performance (due to some back problems) it remains to be seen if the Croatian will be a match for the talented Bulgarian.
ATP Nice
World No.19 Ernests Gulbis won his sixth career title today at the Open de Nice Cote d’Azur, defeating Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-1 7-6(5) in 1h 41m. It is the Latvian’s second title of 2014 after the Open de Marseille won back in February.
Gulbis started the match strongly, winning five games in a row from 1-1 to take the first set 6-1 in 26 minutes. The second set, however, was a completely different story: after the first six games went with serve, both players had to fend off break points in their fourth service games. They both managed to hold and take the set to a tiebreak, which Gulbis won 7-5 to take the match 6-1 7-6 and maintain a perfect 6 wins out of 6 finals played on the ATP World Tour.
At the French Open, No.18 seed Gulbis is set to face Lukas Kubot in the first round, while World No.45 Delbonis will play against Dusan Lajovic: whoever comes out victorious from this match will reach the second round of a Grand Slam for the second time in their career.
