Stanislas Wawrinka defeated Xavier Malisse 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 in the final of the Chennai Open to win his third ATP World Tour title.
"I'm more than happy, it was a perfect week,” declared Wawrinka. “I improved my game day after day and finished with a great match. It's amazing to have the trophy today. It's a perfect start to the year. I have one week to be ready for the Australian Open and this will give me a lot of confidence for the first Grand Slam.”
"Malisse played really good and it was tough to find a solution to win because he was moving well and playing aggressively,” reflected Wawrinka. “After the second set, I could see that he got a bit tired so I tried to maintain my game. Today the key of the match was that I stayed aggressive in the third set."
"It's always disappointing when you don't win a final,” lamented Malisse. “But it's not like I played bad, he played really well. My first serve let me down a bit in the third [set]. He got more free points in the third which makes a big difference after two long sets.”
This was Malisse's first ATP World Tour final in four years, since winning the Chennai (d. Koubek) and Delray Beach (d. Blake) titles in early 2007.
“I played well all week so I have to be happy,” said Malisse. “It feels really good to be back in a final after four years. I'm just happy to be healthy and to be on the court and playing well."
In the doubles final, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes beat Robin Haase and David Martin 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-7 to win their 24th tour-level title together and their first since triumphing at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto in 2004.
"I really can't describe it,” said Bhupathi. “It's an amazing court to play on; we've won here five times. It feels great. We played really high quality today. They threw everything at us after the first set and the Match Tie-break was a very, very high standard."
Paes added, "We were down 1-4 in the Match Tie-break to two guys who have played unbelievable tennis all week. It was incredible to turn it around. It's been seven years since we've played a tournament together - not a bad way to start again! It's another great victory at home for us."
(via ATP World Tour, photo/AP Photo)
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