Montanes Saves 2 M.P. To Clinch Title


Albert Montanes
© AFP/Getty Images

Seventh seed Albert Montanes became the first Spaniard since former ATP World Tour No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2001 titlist, to capture the Estoril Open title.

The 28-year-old Montanes saved two championship points at 4-5 in the second set and fought back to beat fourth-seeded American James Blake 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-0 in two hours and 14 minutes on Sunday.

Montanes also saved one match point against top-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon in a 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(4) quarter-final victory at the Estadio Nacional on Friday.

Montanes is the first player to save at least one match point in two different matches en route to the title since Wesley Moodie in Tokyo in October 2005. Moodie saved four match points in the semi-finals (vs. Nieminen) and two in the final (vs. Ancic).

The World No. 35 improved to 14-13 on the 2009 ATP World Tour season on his fifth visit to the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tennis tournament. Montanes had never before advanced past the second round in his four previous visits (2001, 2002, 2005 and 2007).

Montanes improved to 2-4 lifetime in ATP World Tour finals having won his maiden trophy at Amersfoort (d. Darcis) in July 2008.

Watch highlights of Sunday's final at the Estoril Open


“It was an incredible match,” explained Montanes. “It was very close. James was playing very aggressive and when I saved both match points it gave me some confidence. I had already saved one match points against [Gilles] Simon, so I just kept fighting. In the third set I felt he was tired and I took advantage of that.

“I don’t want to think about Madrid yet. I want to think about this moment, winning the title. I feel very confident at the moment.”

Blake, who had earlier in the day beaten second seed and 2003 champion Nikolay Davydenko 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 6-3 in a rain-interrupted semi-final carried over from Saturday night, made a confident start to his 23rd ATP World Tour final.

Blake saved two break points at 4-4 in the 39-minute first set and went on to secure the decisive service break in the 12th game. He won 25 of 32 service points.

The second set of the pair’s first career meeting went with serve until the seventh game, when Blake hit one double fault and committed a forehand error to gift Montanes a 4-3 lead. The 29-year-old Florida resident responded immediately, breaking back with a forehand winner down the line on game point.

Blake fought off one break point for a 5-4 lead, before setting up two championship points on the Montanes serve at 15-40. Blake squandered the first point with a backhand return long of the baseline and the second point went begging when he committed a backhand error.

Early in the second set tie-break four points went against serve but at 4-4 Blake looked confident of becoming the first American in six years, since Andy Roddick at St. Poelten in 2003 (d. Melzer), to win a clay-court title on European soil.

Montanes was gifted his first set point at 6-5, when Blake hit a backhand down the line long. Blake countered with a powerful forehand crosscourt winner, but his luck was to run out on Montanes’ second set point at 7-6 with a forehand wide of the right tramline.

Montanes, who achieved a career-high No. 32 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings on 20 April 2009, swept through the deciding set in 35 minutes as Blake began to tire. The Barcelona resident won 15 of 22 service points and clinched three of five break points.

“Tennis is a game of inches,” said Blake. “If he missed the line by one inch on one of the match points, I would have won. It didn’t and he gained confidence. It happens to every player. Today, it happened to me in the final. With the exception of one bad set I played some high-level tennis all week.

“Of course I’m disappointed in a loss. But I’m going to try and look back in the next couple of days and think about it positively. I came in here with very little confidence on clay, having lost my last two matches. At least now I won my last four matches and put myself in a position to win a clay-court tournament. I couldn’t take advantage of it, but I will go onto next week’s tournament with a lot more confidence and try and duplicate the results.”

Blake dropped to 12-9 on the 2009 ATP World Tour season. He was appearing in the second clay-court final of his career (also 2008 Houston).

Blake was attempting to become the first American to win a clay-court title since Mardy Fish at Houston (d. Melzer) in April 2006 and the first American to win on European clay since his Davis Cup team mate Andy Roddick lifted the St. Poelten trophy (d. Davydenko) in May 2003.