2011 Heineken Open: Spaniard David Ferrer crowned champion
Seeded no. 1 at the 2011 Heinken Open, David Ferrer of Spain annihilated the no. 6 seed, namely Argentina's David Nalbandian in the Men's singles final played in Auckland on Saturday. In a matter of 68 minutes, Nalbandian was defeated 6-3 in the first set and
6-2 in the set to follow, marking a straight set victory for Ferrer.
The two were expected to remain evenly contested throughout the match, considering the fact that former Wimbledon finalist Nalbandian did not drop a single set before the final. Unfortunately, after having dropped his serve at 3-4 in the initial set, the Argentinean
failed to rise in terms of his performance in the championship final.
Taking his tenth career title, Ferrer broke Nalbandian in the second set, to go up 5-2 right before he held on to his serve to clinch the championship title. Ferrer won for the second time in Auckland, having beaten Tommy Robredo in the 2007 Heineken Open Men's
singles final. In spite of the fact that Nalbandian did not play his best, Ferrer stated, "I would like to congratulate David for this week because he was injured for a lot of time last year. I think he's coming into the top 10 soon."
Ferrer battled it out against Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the semifinals of the tournament. Giraldo was beaten 6-3 in the first set and 7-5 in the set to follow to be eliminated from the tournament. Meanwhile, Nalbandian got through with Nicolas Almagro
of Spain. Almagro was beaten 6-4 and 6-2 in straight sets to be sent home.
Having defeated Almagro, Nalbandian said, "I think today Nicolas didn't play his best – I just kept trying to make him play one more ball all the time, and he did a lot of winners but a lot of mistakes. I did quite a good job: nothing special."
Almagro made it through to the semifinals after having defeated Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6, 6-7 and 6-2. Alongside, Giraldo defeated the no. 7 seed Tomaz Bellucci of Brazil, 6-2 and 6-4, two sets in a row to make a place for himself in the semifinals.
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