Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Marat Safin 6-3 6-4 in the final of the ATP Champions Tour on Sunday at the Royal Albert Tour in London. Both players once held the number 1 spot in the ATP Ranking when they were active players on the ATP Tour. Ferrero beat Mark Philippousis and Fabrice Santoro en route to reaching the final. Safin reached the final after beating Xavier Malisse and Greg Rusedski.
Ferrero, who coaches ATP Next Gen champions Alexander Zverev, broke Safin at 3-2 and cruised through to winning the first set. He hit an ace to close it out 6-3. In the second set the 37-year-old Spanish player got his only break at 3-3 en route to claiming his second ATP Champions Tour title of the season after Stockolm.
“I enjoyed the match playing with Marat. We have been good friends for a long time. It was a good match. I think we are both in good shape and I enjoyed it so much. We try to have fun in these much”, said Ferrero.
“It was the third day of play, so it was pretty tough. Too much running over the past few days and the third one I was just a little but not at my best and plus Juan Carlos is in good shape. He plays every day, he serves very well, said Safin.
