Llodra/Zimonjic strain past Lindstedt/Tecau to claim title win – China Open 2011
Rated at number two in the ATP (association of Tennis Professionals) World Doubles Rankings, the duo of Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, had a stiff battle against the sixth ranked pair of Robert Lindstedt
of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania, before claiming the doubles title in the final of the China Open on Sunday afternoon.
Being played on the outdoor hard courts of the Olympic Green Tennis Center, in Beijing, China, the contest witnessed a close matchup between the two teams, with Llodra and Zimonjic finally coming out as the winner in the end. The
third seeded duo wrapped up victory in straight sets, 7-6(2), 7-6(4), taking one hour and forty nine minutes of play to bag the ATP World Tour 500 trophy in style.
It was the 38th victory for Llodra and Zimonjic in the running ATP season, with 12 defeats to their name already. The second ranked duo claimed their third championship title and registered its second straight victory
over Lindstedt and Tecau of the current year.
Lindstedt and Tecau gave some real tough time to the eventual champions and both sets were dragged into a tie breaker round. The third seeded duo kept its focus in the intense pressure situations of the matchup and knocked out
Lindstedt and Tecau from both tie breaker rounds to get their hands on the China Open title. Llodra and Zimonjic have already confirmed their berth in the ATP World Tour Finals in London and are looking forward to bag a couple of more doubles titles before
going to the grand finale of the tennis season.
“They are such a good team,” said Zimonjic. “They have big serves and they hit the ball really hard. They're two big guys, so it's never easy to play them. Today I thought we played really well in the tie-breaker and important
points. Really happy with the performance today. It's very important obviously to play well in the finals. We are playing better and better every week. I hope that we can just continue in the same direction until the end of the season, and then next year as
well.”
No serve breaks were seen in the opener but the contestants registered two break point conversions apiece in the following set to remain on even terms in the contest. Llodra and Zimonjic banged eight aces in the second set and
cruised through the tie breaker to conclude their title victory at 7-6(4), lifting the China Open trophy.
Tags: