Kei Nishikori clinched his second consecutive title with a 6-4 6-4 win over Spain’s Pablo Andujar at the Trofeo Conde de Godò in Barcelona. .Nishikori recovered from early breaks in both sets and clinched the win with a break in the final game of the match after one hour and 34 minutes.
Both players traded breaks at the start of the match before the match stayed on serve until the tenth game when the Japanese star clinched the break to wrap up the first set with 6-4 with a series of groundstrokes.
Andujar, who won three career titles on clay in Casablanca 2011 and 2012 and Gstaad in 2014, fought back breaking serve in the first game of the second set. The Spaniard tried to get a second break in the third game but Nishikori broke back to draw level to 4-4 before clinching his ninth ATP title and the second of the year after Memphis with another break after one hour and 35 minutes.
Nishikori has become the seventh player to retain the Barcelona title after Rafael Nadal, Thomas Muster, Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl, Iiie Nastase and Andres Gomez.
“I didn’t look to defend my title, just to play my best. I knew that this was a tough tournament with all the Spanish players. I knew that he had a great backhanddown the line too, so I had to move the ball around and in the last two games I played really well. On match point I just closed my eyes and hit it”, said Nishikori
Andujar enjoyed a good week in which he beat Fabio Fognini in the quarter finals and David Ferrer in the semifinals. His final In Barcelona was the best result of his career which also features a semifinal in the Master 1000 in Madrid in 2013 where he beat Narin Cilic, John Isner, Daniel Gimeno Traver and Kei Nishikori in his previous match against the Japanese player on clay before losing against Rafa Nadal in the semifinal.
“I think the difference was that I didn’t take advantage of the chances I had in the second set”, said Andujar.
