Fourth-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany won Munich’s ATP tournament, the BMW Open, with a 7-6 (10/8), 6-3 victory over Croatia’s Marin Cilic in Sunday’s final.
The 28-year-old Kohlschreiber, ranked 34th in the world, but set to rise to the top 25 after his win, lifted the trophy for the second time having also won here in 2007 and needed just less than two hours to claim victory.
“I’m super happy to win a tournament like this,” Kohlschreiber said. “A week without defeats doesn’t happen so often for me and it all started here for me five years ago.”
It was the fourth ATP title of his career and his first since he won the grass-court tournament at Halle in June last year, which is traditionally one of the warmup events before Wimbledon.
Kohlschreiber saved seven of the eight break points he faced, including four in the second set, to seal the final victory.
Having beaten Spain’s Feliciano Lopez in Saturday’s semi-final, this was Kohlschreiber’s fifth win over the 23-year-old Cilic in their eight previous encounters.
SERBIA OPEN
AP, BELGRADE
Second-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy beat Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-2 to win the Serbia Open on Sunday and collect the second title of his career.
France’s Paire, who was playing his first ever ATP final after upsetting top-seeded Pablo Andujar of Spain, got off to a bright start and earned an early break. However, he failed to keep the momentum going and made a series of unforced errors and double faults.
Seppi, who won his first tournament in June last year in Eastbourne, accelerated into a 3-0 lead in the second set before breaking serve to close out the match, but only after Paire had saved five match points.
“It was a fantastic week for me,” said Seppi, who lost in the semi-finals in Belgrade in 2009 against top-ranked Novak Djokovic. “I managed to win this time.”
Paire, who also had eliminated sixth-seeded Fabio Fognini and third-seeded Jarkko Nieminen, thanked the crowd, promising to “see you next year.”
The Serbia Open tournament is organized by the Djokovic family. Djokovic won the title last year, but pulled out this year because of the death of his grandfather.
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