Weekend @PortugalOpen: Carla Suarez Navarro Wins Women’s Event, Berdych & Berlocq Fight For Men’s Title
Manuel Traquete, Tennis East Coast
The Women’s Champion of the 2014 Portugal Open is Carla Suarez Navarro after a titanic battle on center court, which saw her come back from 4-1 down in the decider to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 in the third set to win her first ever career title and go up to #14 in the WTA rankings. It turned out to be one of the best finals of the event since it started in 1998.
On the men’s side, Tomas Berdych dispatched Victor Hanescu with the expected ease, overpowering him from the very first game on his way to a 6-2 6-2 win. His opponent in the last match of the tournament will be Carlos Berlocq, who after a very tight first set against Gimeno-Traver where he won 8-6 in the tiebreak and comfortably won 6-2 in the second set to reach his 3rd career final.
On paper, everything points to another comfortable Berdych win in the final. He’s superior to Berlocq in every aspect of the game. They have played three times with Berdych winning all of them in quite routine fashion and the Czech has much more experience in matches like this one.
It’d be a considerable surprise if Berdych wasn’t the one hoisting the trophy at the end of the match, picking up some steam for the battles ahead in the clay Masters and Roland Garros.
Tennis Atlantic 