Lukas Rosol

Rosol Wins 1st title in Bucharest, Nadal Takes 8th in Barcelona

ATP Bucharest

Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic is one of the great stories on the ATP tour of the past year and he added a highlight to his year with his first ATP title in Bucharest, winning 6-3 6-2 over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. With the title, Rosol makes the ATP top 40 for the first time.

Rosol was by far the best performing player in Bucharest this week, winning matches over Gilles Muller, Andreas Seppi in 3, Viktor Troicki and defending champ Gilles Simon to make the final, dominating with both his serve and ball striking. He is normally known for his improved play on faster surfaces, but clay is still his calling card and it is fitting that he won his first title on the surface.

Garcia-Lopez awoke from a slump to beat Horacio Zeballos in 3 sets, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Janko Tipsarevic in 3 sets and Florian Mayer in 3 sets.

Max Mirnyi and Romanian Horia Tecau combined to win the doubles title over Lukas Dlouhy and Oliver Marach.

ATP Barcelona

Rafael Nadal improved to his 4th title in 6 events (making the final in all 6) and won his 8th overall title in Barca 6-4, 6-3 over countryman Nicolas Almagro. This was already Rafa’s 2nd victory on clay against Almagro this year.

Nadal has still not been at his totally dominant 5th gear level this year, mainly being more cautious with his movement. But because he is simply so talented on clay, he was able to coast by most of his opponents this week, beating Carlos Berlocq, Benoit Paire, Albert Ramos and surprise semifinalist Milos Raonic. Because of rain, Nadal beat Paire and Ramos in the same day.