David Ferrer outlasts Alexandr Dolgopolov to grab title – Valencia Open 2012
Top seed, David Ferrer, captured his sixth title of the season by beating Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov in three sets 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the Valencia Open final.
The Spaniard won this ATP World Tour 500 indoor hard court tournament for the third time in his career, with the previous two triumphs coming in 2008 and 2010.
Ferrer is now joint number one in the race of most titles in this season with one of the best players in the history of the sport, Roger Federer, as both have won six. This was the Spanish star’s overall 17th ATP World
Tour title.
Talking about the proceedings of the match, Ferrer made a flying start, as he allowed his Ukrainian opponent to claim only one game in the entire opening set, winning it 6-1.
Dolgopolov responded in a brilliant manner, winning opening three games of the second set to race to a 3-0 lead. The Ukrainian player maintained his lead till the end and grabbed it 6-3. The strange thing about the second set was
that the receiver could not manage to win even a single point in the last five games, all of them won flawlessly by the server.
Decider was expected to be a close one and it turned out to be same, as both players held their serve in the first nine games to take the score to 5-4 in favour of Ferrer. However, the Spaniard succeeded in striking at that moment,
breaking Dolgopolov to capture it 6-4.
Ferrer showed a very good gesture towards his friend, Juan Carlos Ferrero, by going to the stands and hugging him. Ferrero retired from international tennis after losing in the semi-finals of the doubles event here.
During the post match press conference, Ferrer said, "It's always very difficult to play at home. I knew it would be more difficult to win the title again. He's a very talented opponent. I played aggressively and it went well for
me. I want to dedicate the victory to Juan Carlos Ferrero on his farewell. He has given me the opportunity to grow as a person and as a player."
On the other hand, Dolgopolov stated, "I couldn't take advantage of my opportunities in the third set. He took his chances and broke my serve with new balls. I'm happy to have reached the final, but maybe today I played worse.”
The Ukrainian was bidding for the third title of his career but this loss brought his win/loss record in the tour level finals to 2-2.
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