Dmitry Tursunov defeated Frank Dancevic 6-3 7-6 (7/5)in the final of the AEGON International, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Eastbourne to win his first grass-court title of his career.

"Whether it's winning Wimbledon, Eastbourne, a Challenger of Futures event, or beating your grandmother in checkers, winning is always better than losing - so it's great to get through the week like this," said Tursunov. "I was No.2 seed and was expected to do well, but I had some tough matches along the way."

Tursunov, world number 27, had an ankle surgery in May and made his comeback at Roland Garros, where he suffered a first-round loss to Arnaud Clement before reaching the second round on grass in Halle two weeks later.

"It's always great to win a tournament, especially after I had ankle surgery just a couple of months ago," commented the Russian. "I actually tweaked my ankle in the second set and it was limiting my movement quite a bit towards the second set so I was pretty relieved to get the match over in two sets. I would have been in trouble had it gone to a third."


The 24-year-old Dancevic, one of three qualifiers to reach an ATP World Tour final this season, was bidding for his first ATP World Tour title after falling to Tursunov in his only previous final appearance.

"I went out with the mentality to just go for all my shots today," explained Dancevic. "I did the same yesterday in the semi-finals against Santoro and it paid off. Today it didn't. I think Dmitry played a great match. It's ironic that I've lost to him in my only two ATP World Tour finals so far.

"Of course I'm disappointed right now but if you had told me at the start of the week that I would have had five or six matches, then I would have taken it for sure. It's been a great week and I can go into Wimbledon feeling confident."


(photo/Getty Images)

Dmitry Tursunov wins Eastbourne