Frederico Gil came close to earning Portugal’s first-ever ATP title, but finally fell on Sunday as holder Albert Montanes squeezed out a narrow 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 win in the final of the Estoril Open.
The stirring home effort went a long way to soothe fans after the shock semi-final exit of top-seed Roger Federer at the hands of Montanes 24 hours earlier.
Gil, ranked 133, will rise to around 104 in the world after his major and all but unexpected effort.
PHOTO: EPA
Montanes, ranked 34th, looked to have the match sewn up in little more than an hour, but Gil had other plans.
The outsider rallied from a deficit in the second set and took it into a winning tiebrekaer to bring on a third set.
Gil also held a lead, but lost it as Montanes fought to level 4-4, then broken the final game to ease to the victory after two-and-a-half hours of battle.
PHOTO: EPA
“It’s great to win the trophy again, especially after beating Federer here,” the winner said. “It was a real battle between us and I’m just glad I was able to come through, it feels great and gives me more confidence going into the French Open.”
Fourth-seed Montanes won the fourth trophy of his career.
The Spaniard, who benefited from a bye into the second round, had played for less than three hours in his previous three matches this week, while Gil had one match more and a total time of more than eight-and-a-half hours on the clay.
PHOTO: EPA
On Saturday, Montanes had handed Federer a stunning straight-set loss in their semi-final and was able to carry his momentum through for his 10th win in a row at Estoril.
Montanes became the first man to defend a title here since Austrian Thomas Muster in 1995 to 1996.
Gil kept pace with Montanes in the first few games before the Spaniard broke it open with four consecutive winning games to claim the first set in 33 minutes.
Montanes went up an early break in the second on the way to his win. Montanes never faced a break point early on, but Gil showed his courage as he saved a pair of match points in the penultimate game and showed he would not roll over.
Montanes, who beat American James Blake in last year’s final, was playing Estoril for the sixth time. Estoril was his 12th ATP event of the year and by far his best performance after a pair of semi-finals in Auckland and Buenos Aires.
■MADRID OPEN
REUTERS, MADRID
Four-times French Open champion Justine Henin’s preparations for the Roland Garros grand slam event suffered a shuddering jolt with defeat to France’s Aravane Rezai in the Madrid Open first round on Sunday.
Henin won the Stuttgart title on clay last week and is considered a dangerous outsider in Paris later this month, but said she had been suffering from sickness since the German event and was not at 100 percent.
“When I came back from Stuttgart, I wasn’t feeling well at all,” she told a news conference. “I just tried to come and see how I felt but to practise and play a match is a different story. Madrid has been a difficult experience this year and I hope that next year will be better.”
Her first serve was inconsistent and Rezai, the world No. 22, took full advantage with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 win as the Belgian’s game collapsed in the deciding set.
Henin beat Australia’s Samantha Stosur in the final in Stuttgart on Sunday last week for her first title since she ended her 19-month self-imposed exile at the start of the year.
She had been suffering infections in her nose and throat and had lacked energy on the court.
“She was at a very good level and I was probably below my capacity and it wasn’t an easy day,” she said. “I hope I will get better in a few days and get ready for the French Open now.”
Maria Sharapova was another former world No. 1 to fall at the first hurdle on the clay in Madrid, the Russian 11th-seed going down 6-4, 6-3 to Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.
Fourth-seed Venus Williams, also a former No. 1, had a much gentler day’s work, the powerful American easing past Swiss qualifier Stefanie Voegele 6-4, 6-2.
“It’s a struggle trying to find the rhythm,” a philosophical Sharapova, who was playing her first tournament since pulling out of the Sony Ericsson Open in March with an elbow injury, told a news conference.
Safarova broke Sharapova’s serve four times and the Czech is on course for a possible last-16 clash with sixth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva.
“If you win against these top players, as I have the last couple of months, then you get your confidence and you realize you can be up there,” the world No. 35, who beat No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki in Stuttgart, told a news conference. “My dream is to be top 10 and it’s a lot about believing in yourself.”
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