David Ferrer defeats Nicolas Almagro to retain his Albierto Mexicano Telcel Title
Top seeded Spaniard David Ferrer overpowered his third seeded compatriot Nicolas Almagro in a three-set thriller of 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 at the Acapulco Association of Tennis Professionals on Sunday.
Ferrer, ranked six in the world, had won 80 per cent of his last ten matches. Earlier this season, he won the Auckland ATP title and reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open Grand Slam. Though he exited the Rotterdam ATP in the first round, he entered
this tournament confidently and overpowered Romanian Adrian Unqur and Mexican Santiago Gonzalez in straight sets in the first two rounds. The Spaniard then swiped away seventh seeded Argentinean Juan Monaco and sixth seeded Ukrainian Alexander Dolgopolov to
reach the final.
Whereas his compatriot, Almagro had a 100 per cent winning record for his last ten matches and before entering this tournament he won Costa do Sauipe ATP and Buenos Aires ATP titles. He dumped Brazilian Thomas Bellucci in the semi-finals to reach this spot.
After beating his 25-year-old compatriot, Ferrer extended his head-to-head lead by 6-0 and maintained a perfect record in this tournament.
In this epic battle, both Spaniards displayed an awe-inspiring game of tennis and played with their best forms. The 28-year-old, Ferrer with his awesome attacking skills made a come-back in the opening set. Almagro was leading 5-2 but many unforced errors
helped the elder Spaniard to get a break of serve. Ferrer then unleashed his amazing skills and took the set to tie-breaker where he prevailed. Both hammered two aces and had an equal first serve percentage of 53 per cent. However, Ferrer registered an amazing
84 per cent win on it.
The frustrated Almagro did not give up and after composing himself, he won the second set tie-breaker easily. Although Ferrer fired 4 aces to Almagro’s 2 and had a higher first serve percentage, but the younger Spaniard earned an impressive 80 per cent win
on it.
In the final set, Almagro seemed exhausted whereas Ferrer kept his form and was clearly the better player. He did not commit any double faults and had a higher first serve percentage of 57 per cent as compared to Almagro’s 45 per cent. Ferrer also registered
an astonishing 71 per cent win on it.
“It has dawned on me that I am enjoying the best start to a season of my career,” said the successful Ferrer. "I hope I can continue like this for the rest of the year. Nicolas fought a good fight and I think he got weary towards the end."
It will be interesting to see how Ferrer carries his winning momentum forward as the field is getting more competitive. The Spaniard’s fans will definitely have something to cheer about.
Tags: