Viktor Troicki clinched his second consecutive title at the Apia International ATP 250 at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney after saving a match point in a tight tie-break of the third set against Grigor Dimitrov. Troicki came back from losing the first set to win the match in the tie-break of the third set with 2-6 6-1 7-6 (9-7). Troicki has become the first player to win two consecutive titles in Sydney since James Blake’s back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. The Serbian player has lifted his third career title after Moscow in 2010 and Sydney in 2015.
Dimitrov and Troicki, who were respectively the third and the fourth seeds in this tournament, met for the second time in the first two weeks of 2016. Last week Dimitrov came back from a set and a break down to edge out Troicki 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 to reach the quarter finals at the Brisbane International.
Troicki came into the final as the defending champion with a winning streak of 11 consecutive victories at the Sydney Olympic Park. He also reached the final in this tournament in 2011.
Dimitrov cruised past Troicki in the first set by getting a double break in the third game for 2-1 and in the seventh game for 5-2. Dimitrov played a one-sided first set in which he did not face a break point chance en route to taking the win with 6-2.
Troicki turned around the match in his favour in the second set where Dimitrov dropped his serve with three double faults in the second set to fall behind 0-2. Both players traded breaks in the next two games. Dimitrov broke straight back on his third break-back chance in the third game after a forehand error by Troicki to claw his way back to 1-2 but Troicki broke again for 3-1. Troicki held his serve in the the next game to pull away to 4-1. Troicki got another break before winning his fourth consecutive game to close out the second set.
The third set was marked by an exciting battle in which most of the games were decided at deuce. Dimitrov earned two break points at the start of the third set. Troicki fended off three break point chances in the fourth game of the third set to draw level to 2-2. Troicki earned two break points at 4-4 with a backhand winner and converted his first chance for a 5-4 lead as Dimitrov hit a backhand into the net. Troicki served to defend the Sydney title won last year but Dimitrov broke straight back to 30 in the next game to draw level to 5-5 with a one-handed backhand winner when Troicki was serving for the match. Dimitrov won the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead but Troicki forced the match to the tie-break.
In the tie-break Dimitrov went down 1-3 but he clawed his way back to draw level to 4-4. Troicki earned the first match point at 6-5 but Dimitrov saved it. Troicki had to fend off a match point at 7-6 before clinching a very tight and intense tie-break with 9-7 on his second match point with a cross-court backhand passing shot winner. Troicki scored his first win in his third head-to-head match against Dimitrov.
Troicki has enjoyed a great week in which he beat Nicolas Mahut in the quarter final before overcoming Teymuraz Gabashvili in three sets in the semifinal on Friday.
“One ball decided the match. It was my favourite shot of all at the end to win it. So many times that shot brought me a lot of happiness. That’s how I won the Davis Cup title. i could not imagine what would have happened if I lost today. It would have been just crazy to recover from it”, said Troicki
Dimitrov, who was looking to win his first tournament since his triumph at the Queen’s in 2014, lost the fourth final in his seven attempts. Despite the defeat it’s been a good week for Dimitrov who has showed good form at the start of the 2016 season under the guidance of his new coach Franco Davin, who previously trained Juan Martin Del Potro. Dimitrov lost to Roger Federer in three sets in the quarter finals last week in Brisbane before reaching the final in Sydney after winning both the quarter final and the semifinal on Friday after a rain-affected Thursday.
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares win the doubles title:
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares claimed their first ATP doubles title as a team with a 6-3 7-6 (8-6) win over Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea. Murray and Soares, who played their first doubles tournament, rallied from 0-5 down in the second set to win the third set at the tie-break.
“It’s not easy. Me and Jamie played for a long time with our former partners so it’s nice to see we are on the right way at the beginning of our partnership. I think we played two very good weeks. We improved in every single match from the beginning of the year. I think that’s the most important thing. Our goal is to be strong as a team. This week we proved we can be a strong team”, said Soares.
