In the first edition of SA Tennis Open in South Africa, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated first time finalist Jeremy Chardy 6/4 7/6(5) in an all-French final.
After capturing his first two titles in 2008 (Bangkok- ATP 250 and Paris- Masters 1000) Tsonga managed to win his third title on a different continent. His route to glory was rather easy as he didn't even lose one set.
“Every time I play finals now my level is going up and I play great, so it is good.
I think for the first edition it was just amazing. Everything was fine, I have nothing negative to say. The court was perfect.”- said the Frenchman afterwards.
Not only Tsonga can be happy about his performance. Jeremy Chardy reached his first ATP World Tour final after beating nr 2 seed David Ferrer in the semifinal. Chardy saved three matchpoints before claiming a great victory over the Spaniard 3/6 7/6(9) 7/6(4). The second semifinal included one big surprise as well. Frederico Gil from Portugal played a great tournament before falling to Tsonga 3/6 4/6.
It was a great begin of South Africa's adventure with tennis and we are looking forward to next year's edition.
Vina del Mar (ATP, 250)
In the battle of South American's Fernando Gonzalez from Chile needed just 55 minutes to beat Argentinian Jose Acasuso 6/1 6/3.
Top seed and defending champion Fernando Gonzalez clinched his fourth title at his home soil in Vina del Mar and eleventh overall. He had to beat three Argentinians in this tournament, but in fact none of them made Gonzalez fight really hard as he won all his matches in straight sets.
"Every player dreams to win a title in his home country in front of his crowd. I'm happy to have done it four times and I can only hope this wasn't the last time. It is always fantastic to feel the energy from the crowd. That's nothing better than this."- said Fernando.
The crowd saw a great comeback from Juan Ignacio Chela, who reached quaterfinals in his first tournament since French Open 2008. He played really great tennis before losing his match against nr 2 seed Tommy Robredo 6/0 3/6 4/6.
Worth noticing was also the run of a qualifier from Uruguay, Pablo Cuevas. Current world number 149 in the ATP ranking reached his second consecutive semifinal in Vina del Mar, being once again dismissed by Gonzalez 3/6 2/6.
It was Marin Cilic, who won the all Croat battle in the final of the Zagreb tournament. He defeated Mario Ancic 6/3 6/4 to earn his second title of the2009 season .
Cilic who moved today into his career highest ranking of 20, impressed the crowd throughout the whole tournament."Before the tournament I was wishing that I would make the final here, that wish came true and especially today I played really well. It’s a really nice feeling to win here at home. It was really special to play against my friend, Ancic. It was a really big feeling for both of us and the stadium was full. It was really nice to play and I had a little bit more adrenalin in me and I kept it going and really played well."- said the in-form Cilic.
There were a few surprises during this week as the number one seed Igor Andreev lost his first round match to a qualifier Ivan Dodig (ATP 342). The Croat managed then to outgun Ernest Gulbis in his second match.
Jan Hernych from Czech Republic is surely another player, who will be satisfied with his results last week. He reached the semifinal, where he had three matchpoints againt Ancic, but eventually lost 7/6(4) 3/6 6/7(9).
The tournament occured also in one strange incident that happened in the first round encounter between Guillermo Canas and wild card Antonio Veic. Veic was a heavy underdog before the match, but then became the odds-on favorite despite losing the first set. He went on to win 4/6 6/4 6/2. Betfair is now investigating this odd betting paterns durring that match.
Could we be in for another betting scandal like the famous one with Davydenko in Sopot 2007?
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