CARTAGENA, February 27, 2016
Fifth seed Christian Garin captured the title of the US-$ 10,000 ITF Future in Cartagena, winning the final on Saturday against the tournament’s number two Oriol Roca Batalla 6-4, 6-2.
The 19-year-old from Chile, who entered the draw with a wild card, dominated most of the rallies, didn’t face a break point and capitalized on three of his own to seal victory in 63 minutes.
Christian Garin
“I played a solid match, was very aggressive and served well. The courts are very slow here, which suits my game pretty well. I am happy to win the title here,” Garin told Tennis TourTalk afterwards.
“It’s good that I had the chance to play a couple of matches here, as I will play Davis Cup next. This title gives me a lot of confidence,” he added. Chile will face the Dominican Republic in Santiago next week.
Garin, who is coached by former Spanish Davis Cup Captain Javier Duarte, played his only second tournament of the season after he lost in the qualification at the ATP Challenger in Bergamo.
“I am living in Barcelona now. There are a lot of good player to practice with them. Javier is an amazing coach. I think I will play more Challenger than Futures. I couldn’t play for three months due to an ankle injury and I am happy to be back on court now. Winning my first tournament here is great. Getting into the top 100 is the goal,” the teenager said.
Garin lifted his fifth trophy on the ITF Future Circuit, his first since 2014. He takes away $1,440 in prize money as well as 18 ATP ranking points.
Vasile Antonescu and Mircea-Alexandru Jecan went back to back in Spain, claiming the doubles title on Friday. The two Romanians lifted the trophies in Murcia last week and also emerged victorious in Cartagena, beating Carlos Taberner and Kento Yamada 6-4, 6-1 in 57 minutes.
Vasile Antonescu and Mircea-Alexandru Jecan claimed their second title within two weeks
“We played two very good weeks here in Spain. In Murcia we had a tough first match, were a bit lucky but started a momentum. We saved match points in the final and won 11-9 in the third set. We brought a lot of confidence into this tournament here, which helped us to play well every day,” Jecan told Tennis TourTalk after the final.
“We will play in Croatia for the next three weeks before we will return to Romania,” Antonescu added referring to their further schedule.
“We try to play together in doubles as long as we are in the same tournament. We don’t put a lot of pressure on our doubles results as we focus on our singles careers and I would like to be within the top 300 by the end of the season,” Jecan said.
Antonescu and Jecan captured their third title on the ITF Circuit
The tournament celebrated its 66th edition, first held in 1945. Due to financial problems, the “Copa Challenge” did not take place between 1962 and 1966 but a couple of famous players participated throughout the decades at the Tenis Club Cartagena. In 1959 four time Grand Slam champion Manolo Santana claimed the title in Cartagena, 40 years later former world number one Juan-Carlos Ferrero lifted the trophy. Emilio Sánchenz-Vicario, Felix Mantilla as well as Rafael Nadal competed here.
