Carlos Moya defeats Younes El Aynaoui to clinch title win – Chengdu Open 2011
Former world number one, Carlos Moya of Spain clinched a title win at the Chengdu Open in Chengdu, China on Sunday, October 30th defeating Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui in straight, yet not so simple, sets registering a
6-2, 7-6(6) win.
Playing on the ATP Champions Tour, Moya was part of the eight man field participating in a round robin format. Moya moved into the final match on Saturday, 28th October after winning his third round robin match against
Aussie Thomas Enqvist in straight sets. Moya had earlier defeated Mark Philippoussis and Paradorn Srichapan in earlier round robin matches. Enjoying straight sets victories over all his opponents, Moya entered the title match with a perfect 3-0 win loss mark
backed by a 6-0 set win loss record.
Coming in from Group A, El Aynaoui moved in with similar three match victories in his round robin matches though he suffered a set loss enroute. Defeating American legend Pete Sampras on Thursday in straight sets, the Moroccan
required three sets to do away with Russian Marat Safin on Friday winning only in the Champion’s Tiebreak. Younes secured his final spot after defeating Wayne Ferreira in straight sets on Saturday.
However, the Moroccan failed to make an impact as he played Moya in the final. Giving up two breakpoint opportunities in the first set, Younes trailed in the set score as Moya clinched an easy 6-2 win in the opener. Resistance
from the Moroccan in the second set forced a tiebreaker. Younes maintained his neck-to-neck run in the tiebreaker as he kept the scoreboard tied for the first twelve points. However, capitalising on a mini-break Moya reeled off two straight points to clinch
an 8-6 victory in the tiebreaker, sealing his straight sets victory.
With this one, Moya adds 200 points to his ranking as he displaces Philippoussis on the top becoming number one amongst the Old Ones. Moya had also won the title in the last event on the ATP Champions Tour at Knokke Heist defeating
Richard Krajicek.
Coming in 3rd in the event was Sampras as he defeated Enqvist. Cruising through the match for the 3rd/ 4th place, Sampras rode single break point opportunities in the first and second set to secure
an easy breezy 6-4, 6-4 win over the Aussie.
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