Spain's top seed David Ferrer kept his career-best season rolling yesterday, taking the men's singles at the Japan Open with an easy win over Richard Gasquet of France.
The 25-year-old, who has maintained a career-high world number eight ranking since his semi-final appearance at the US Open, coasted to a 6-1, 6-2 win over the French third seed.
"It's a great feeling. It's my first time to win here in Tokyo on hard courts. It's unbelievable. This is the best moment of my career," he said.
PHOTO: AFP
"I played very good, very consistent. Maybe Richard was a little bit tired," he said.
Everything went perfectly for Ferrer, who stormed ahead 4-0 in the first set and 3-0 in the second. He never faced a crisis during the 53-minute match.
Gasquet missed two break points in the fourth game of the first set and struggled to make good on his other break chances.
PHOTO: EPA
Gasquet admitted that he was tired after winning last week in Mumbai and playing five more matches in Tokyo, saying: "If you are not great physically, it's difficult to beat him."
But the 21-year-old said he still had a good chance at making next month's eight-man season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai. Ferrer is in a good position, currently at number six in the race.
"I will be ninth or 10th next week. I can be in the Masters," Gasquet said.
"But I have to play good in Madrid and Paris. It's really important for me. If I can be in the semi-finals in Madrid, everything will be possible," he said.
Meanwhile, in yesterday's women's doubles final Taiwan's Chuang Chia-jung and Vania King of the US lost to Chinese pair Sun Tiantian and Yan Zi 6-1, 2-6, 6-10.
King and Chuang were opponents in last year's final when the Taiwanese-American teamed up with Jelena Kostanic of Croatia to defeat Chuang and fellow Taiwanese Chan Yung-jan in three sets.
King and Chuang beat crowd favorites Ai Sugiyama and Ayumi Morita 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the first round on the way to yesterday's final.
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