Sage advice from French women’s great Amelie Mauresmo whipped compatriot Michael Llodra into top pre-Wimbledon shape as the eighth seed defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-2 to win the Eastbourne International on Saturday. Success in 76 minutes marked the second grass trophy for the world No. 46, who brought retired 2006 Wimbledon champion Mauresmo into his coaching brain trust only last week at Queen’s club.
“This is a special win for me,” Llodra said after winning a final interrupted for 30 minutes in the second set by rain and concluded in more showers. “Last week I tried a new combination with Amelie. She helped me a lot. I hope it will be good next week [Wimbledon] also.”
Llodra won the opening set against his fifth-seded Spanish opponent with a break in the last game and broke twice more in the second set. Garcia-Lopez saved three match points in the rain, but put a forehand wrong to give Llodra a fourth winning chance. The Frenchman took it from the Spaniard’s concluding unforced error.
PHOTO: AFP
Llodra fired 11 aces in the victory, his second title of the season after winning Marseille in February. He improved to 16-11 this year and heads to Wimbledon with confidence after somehow never getting past the second round at the major.
“It was a great win today, one more title. I want to enjoy this victory, which will help a lot next week — but that is next week.” Llodra said.
In the women’s final, qualifier Ekaterina Makarova claimed the first honor of her career beating Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to become the first unseeded champion in eight years at a WTA event.
The number 100-ranked Russian made the breakthrough without the loss of a set in seven matches from start to finish at Devonshire Park.
“I cannot understand yet that I won,” said an emotional Makarova, 22, who finally came good in her third career final. “I’m a bit in shock, especially that I didn’t lose a set.”
“This is just unbelievable to me, I cannot believe that I did it,” she said. “There was no secret to the success, I just have a great coach. I also like the grass and I enjoyed the tennis here.”
Makarova swept to victory in one hour 51 minutes with a winner on the first of two match points against an opponent not fully fit with both knees taped and favoring her left.
■UNICEF OPEN
AFP, S’HERTOGENBOSCH, THE NETHERLANDS
Former world No. 1 Justine Henin enjoyed the perfect preparation for Wimbledon when she beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to win the UNICEF Open title on Saturday.
It was the 43rd singles victory of the 28-year-old’s career and the second, after Stuttgart, since she returned to the circuit in January after two years in retirement. It was also a timely boost on grass for the Belgian as she heads to London in pursuit of the only Grand Slam to have eluded her.
Henin, the top seed, was forced to dig deep for this victory as she dropped the first set, then trailed 0-3 in the final set.
Her 22-year-old German opponent had only appeared in one final before when she won at Bad Gastein last year but she showed few nerves as she tested Henin in the opening set.
She kept her cool to bag the one break point that presented itself during the first set going on to take it 6-3.
Henin, however, bounced back to take the second as both players struggled on their own serve. Henin dropped her serve once but broke Petkovic twice to restore parity.
It was the German, though, who took a grip on the third set, breaking Henin’s first service game to open up a 3-0 lead. But Henin, who is ranked 17 for Wimbledon, hit back to break Petkovic twice and snatch the set and the title.
Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky took the men’s title, needing just 56 minutes to dispose of Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-0.
The 24-year-old from Kiev, ranked 71 in the world, did not drop a set all week and had his serve broken just three times in 46 games.
Tipsarevic, ranked 20 places higher, had a disastrous day, claiming just nine points in a second set that lasted a mere 22 minutes.
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