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Fabio Fognini saved three match points and claimed his second straight title yesterday with victory over Argentine qualifier Federico Delbonis in the Hamburg Open final. |
Italy’s Fognini won his debut title last weekend in Stuttgart and followed it up with a 4-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-2 victory on Sunday over Delbonis who had eliminated former world number one Roger Federer in yesterday’s semi-finals.
Delbonis, ranked 114th in the world, squandered a match point in the second set against the 12th-seeded Fognini.
The 26-year-old Fognini had needed to get his temper under control to win the claycourt final after several outbursts in the second set.
Having lost the first set and found himself 4-1 down in the second, Fognini levelled at 4-4 and eventually forced a tie-breaker. Delbonis squandered three match points at 6-5, 7-6 and 8-7 in the breaker. Arguably his best opportunity to win had come at 6-5, when he served out wide only miss a volley at the net. The Italian, ranked 25th in the world, composed himself to claim the tie-break, then raced into a 3-0 lead in the final set before going on to convert his first match point after 2 hours, 27 minutes.
Meanwhile World number one Serena Williams racked up her 51st win of the year yesterday when she cruised past home player Johanna Larsson in the Swedish Open final.
Williams showed little mercy as she swept to a 6-4, 6-1 victory to take the 53rd WTA title of her career.
Larsson, 24, ranked 76th in the world, had no answer to the Williams arsenal and her third WTA final went the way of the previous two, ending in defeat.
French Open winner Williams, 31, was contesting her 69th final and is unbeaten on clay this season, having also won in Rome, Madrid and
Charleston.