St. Petersburg: Top-seed Dominic Thiem of Austria topped Slovakia’s Martin Klizan 6-3, 6-1 to win the St. Petersburg Open tennis tournament, his 11th career title and his first on indoor hard court.
Thiem, World No.8, needed just one hour and eight minutes to earn his first win over Klizan, World No.65, in their fourth career match here Sunday.
“I think that I was raising up my level from the first to the last match and obviously I played my best match today (Sunday),” Thiem, 25, said after claiming his third title of the year.
“It was pretty close in the beginning. He was playing very well at the start of the match, but then I did one break, which was very important. From this moment on, I think I had control of the match,” he added.
Thiem ended Klizan’s six-final winning streak, preventing him from becoming the first player to win his first seven title matches since the ATP World Tour began in 1990.
Klizan, 29, was unable to make the most of two break points he created, while he conceded his own service game four times out of seven opportunities.
“It’s a loss. I’m not very happy, but overall it was a good week for me,” Klizan said. “I had like three or four days to prepare on hard courts and the result, the final, I think it’s good,” he added.