Troicki Wins First ATP World Tour Title

© Getty ImagesViktor Troicki won his first ATP World Tour title at the third attempt.

World No. 43 Viktor Troicki won his first ATP World Tour title at the third attempt Sunday as he came from a set down to defeat Marcos Baghdatis 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the final of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

The Serbian is the fourth first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this season, joining John Isner (Auckland), Ernests Gulbis (Delray Beach) and Andrey Golubev (Hamburg).

“It feels really great to win my first (ATP World Tour) title, there are no words to describe what is going through my mind,” said Troicki. “I would say it is the biggest day of my career. I had been waiting a long time for this. It is special it happened in Moscow as my father is Russian.”

The 24-year-old Troicki was contesting his third ATP World Tour singles final after runner-up finishes in Washington in 2008 (l. to del Potro) and Bangkok in 2009 (l. to Simon). As winner of the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tennis tournament, he received 250 South African Airways 2010 ATP Ranking points and $181,750.

Fourth seed Baghdatis drew first blood in the pair’s second meeting, sealing the first set after a decisive service break in the sixth game. Troicki was stronger on serve in the second set, though, never yielding a break point, and was rewarded for aggressive play on Baghdatis’ serve in the 10th game as he broke through to level the match.

After saving a break point early in the third set, Troicki then seized the initiative, capitalising on a lack of first serves from Baghdatis in the fourth game to break and lead 3-1, before going on to close out victory in one hour and 44 minutes.

“Marcos played a great first set and a half, but then I was able to get into the match,” assessed Troicki. “I was nervous serving out for the title but I tried not to think too much about it. The mistakes I made against Rafa (Nadal in the Tokyo semi-finals), when I served for the match but lost, helped me.”

The Belgrade native capped a strong run of form, which had seen him hold two match points in a semi-final defeat to World No. 1 Nadal in Tokyo two weeks ago, before beating third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round this week. He improved to a 34-28 match record on the season.

The No. 19-ranked Baghdatis was bidding to win his second ATP World Tour title in three finals this season. He won his fourth career trophy at the start of the year in Sydney (d. Gasquet), before finishing runner-up to David Nalbandian in Washington in August.

“I lost a lot of matches in my career, but it is frustrating to lose in a final like this,” said the Cypriot. “I thought I was in control of the first two sets. I still had a great week, played great tennis.”