Tennis News

For the third time in his career, Martin Klizan is a champion on the ATP World Tour. On Sunday afternoon, in the renowned city of Casablanca, Klizan captured the Grand Prix Hassan II title with a victory over Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

“It’s an amazing feeling right now,” said Klizan. “Every time I am in Morocco, I have played a lot on Centre Court and seen the list of all the names. I wished to be a champion and today I am. I am very proud and excited now. The crowd was unbelievable, they always support me.

“I would like to dedicate the trophy to my grandfather, who passed away last week, and also to those who died in an autobus crash in southern Morocco [on Friday].”

Klizan won the match 6-2, 6-2 in straightforward fashion, as he needed no more than 76 minutes to close out the encounter. He takes home €80,000 in prize money and earned 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points.

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Gimeno-Traver, who was participating in his first ATP World Tour final, took home €42,100 and 150 points.

“I will always remember this week and I’m very happy that I reached my first final here,” said Gimeno-Traver.”Today, was a difficult match for me. I played a long match yesterday and I didn’t feel very well today. Martin played a great match and deserved to win.”

Although it was far from a simple affair, Angelique Kerber managed to overcome a surging talent to win one of the biggest title of her career on Sunday at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston.

Having dropped out of the Top 10 on the world tour over the past few months, and with just two wins in her last eight matches, few anticipated that the German No. 2 would be capable of such a strong week on the clay. However, following an impressive week, she managed to overcome a rollercoaster match to beat Madison Keys 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. She also had to rally from a 4-1 deficit in the final set in order to overcome the American.

“It’s unbelievable,” Kerber said. “To win here after the really difficult weeks I had, I’m feeling great. Last year I had four finals and I didn’t win any of them, so it’s great that I actually won this one today. “It’s just been a great week for me here. Everybody is so nice, and I’m really happy about my game.”

It was a tough loss for Madison, who was within two games of victory at one point and was unable to capitalize on her momentum. She now falls to 1-3 against Kerber in their head-to-head series.

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“Coming off tough losses at Indian Wells and Miami, I’m happy I kept a great attitude this week, and I was just fighting as hard as I could today. I could have gone either way after the first set, but I dug deep and still put myself in a position to win. But she just wasn’t making any mistakes at the end.”