Granollers Wins All-Spanish Contest To Capture Second Title

© Valeriano Di Domenico/Fresh FocusMarcel Granollers won his second ATP World Tour title.

Eighth seed Marcel Granollers defeated fourth seed Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in an all-Spanish final on Sunday at the Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad to win his second ATP World Tour title.

The 25-year-old Granollers capped a dream week, which also saw him defeat second seed Stanislas Wawrinka and third seed Mikhail Youzhny, to become the seventh different Spanish winner on the ATP World Tour this season. He earned 250 South African Airways 2011 ATP Ranking points and €72,600 in prize money.

"Last week was bad for me because I felt a lot of pain in my arm, which I had felt since Wimbledon," revealed Granollers. "I went home and rested for five days without any practice, and I came here on Sunday and started to feel better and better. Now I have won the tournament and so it’s amazing.

"It’s very important for me because I won my first tournament in 2008, which was a little unexpected, and three years later I won here. So there is a lot of work behind today and I feel amazing."

In the fifth all-Spanish final on the ATP World Tour this year, and the first in Gstaad since 1997, Granollers dominated the first set, surrendering only four points on serve and converting one of his five break point chances to take the early lead.

Verdasco struck back with a decisive break of serve at the start of the second set to level the match, but it was Granollers who seized the initiative in the decider, breaking serve in the sixth game before claiming victory in two hours and 24 minutes.

"It was a very tough match because he’s an incredible player," said Granollers. "He’s won a lot of tournaments and it was very tough for me today. All week I served very well, especially today. I was very solid from the baseline and today I played the first set very aggressively."

Granollers was contesting the third ATP World Tour final of his career. He captured his first crown on clay in Houston three years ago (d. Blake) and finished runner-up to countryman David Ferrer on indoor hard courts in Valencia last November.

Former World No. 7 Verdasco was looking to win his first ATP World Tour title since triumphing in Barcelona (d. Soderling) in April 2010. The left-hander dropped to a 5-11 mark in ATP World Tour finals; he also lost out in the San Jose (l. to Raonic) and Estoril (l. to del Potro) title matches earlier this year.

Reflecting on the match, Verdasco said, "It was close, and when a match is like that, one or two points decide it. He played better than me on the important points and he served very good. He really deserved this victory, after having the pain in his arm the past few weeks and he didn’t even know if he would be able to play here. He played unbelievable all week, beat many good players, and today it was really tough just to return his serve.

"Of course it’s better to lose in the final than before the final," added the Madrid native. "But you always want to win, so it’s not easy to lose the final. I think I played well the whole week; it’s tough to play here with altitude. I just need to try not to let the negative part of losing the final get me down, and try to take the positive part and get the confidence and motivation for the upcoming tournaments.”