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First ATP title for Bopanna

— Photo: AFP

SAVOURING THE MOMENT: Rohan Bopanna and Eric Butorac are joy personified after winning the doubles title on Sunday.

Chennai: Rohan Bopanna captured his first ATP title by winning the Countrywide Classic doubles event with Eric Butorac in Los Angeles on Sunday. Bopanna and Butorac defeated Travis Parrott and Dusan Vemic 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) in the final, giving the big-serving Indian a title in his fifth final appearance.

The 28-year-old Bopanna’s previous finals were in Newport (last month), Chennai and Mumbai (two finals). It was the fourth career ATP title for 27-year-old Butorac of the USA, who was appearing in his first ATP final of the year.

“It was great. We’ve never played together before. We started out a little slow and kind of got better with each match. I think we’re a pretty good team. We both serve pretty well.

“I’m left-handed, he’s right-handed so there’s different looks on the serve. It’s a good situation to be in,” said Butorac. In a match dominated by serve, breaks were exchanged just once, in the first set.

Third-seed Juan Martin del Potro captured his third straight ATP title and broke into the top-20, with a 6-1, 7-6 (2) victory over top-seed Andy Roddick in the singles final. After the 34-minute opening set, neither player faced a break-point in the second before Roddick went up 2-1 in the tie-break.

The 19-year-old del Potro won the next six points to add to his back-back claycourt titles in Stuttgart and Kitzbuhel. His win here made him the first Argentine to capture an ATP hard court title in the United States since Guillermo Vilas won in Virginia Beach in 1977.

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