Del Potro won his 4th crown indoors, collected a cheque of €305,000 and also received 500 ranking points as he became only the second man from Argentina to win the event in Rotterdam. Before him only Guillerma Vilas has accomplished the same featv way back in 1982.
The world no.7 had not lost his serve in the four previous matches in the tourney and had held on to all his 40 service games by saving the nine break points he had offered to his opponents in the week. However, that run was quickly snapped by the 2006 French Open quarterfinalist as he was broken almost immediately at the beginning of the encounter and went down 0-2 in the final.
The second seed hurriedly got into the groove as he cruised through the next four games, however the Geneva resident battled hard to break the former world no.4 in the 10th game to take the first set into a tie-breaker. The Argentine held firm in the breaker as he quelled Benneateau’s challenge to lock the opening set by bagging seven points to only two by the Frenchman.
The towering figure carried that momentum into the ensuing set as he leap-frogged to an early 3-0 lead with a break of serve. Roger Federer’s slayer in the last 4 pushed really hard, but wasn’t able to crack the code on his Del Po serve. The only problem the man from Tandil faced was a bleeding nose and had to take a medical time-out to receive treatment for the same. He squandered four match-points in the 8th game on the Bourg en Bresse native’s serve due to the bloodied nostril and was forced to use a cotton wool plug so for serving out the match.
Acknowledging his happiness on his happiness throughout the week, the Tower of Tandil said: "It's amazing, it was a big goal for me to win this title after losing the final last year. I'm so happy to win this tournament. I played really well from the first round to the final. I think I played the way I needed to, to win this kind of tournament.”
The 2009 US Open champion added: “I’m feeling very confident with my serve, hopefully for the rest of the season. Today I did lose serve for the first time this week, but finals are tough to play. I played perhaps my worst tennis of the week at the start of the match, I came out very nervous, but I fought back. Later on I started feeling very confident and in control all the time. I will try to keep on winning, I’m looking forward to my next event. It’s a big challenge for me this season to try and move closer to the number one position.”
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