Marcel Granollers toughed out a three sets win over Argentinian wildcard Juan Monaco 6-2 4-6 7-6 (3) in the final of the Valencia Open 500 on Sunday.
Granollers has had a great week in Valencia with wins over Marin Cilic, Gael Monfils and Juan Martin Del Potro. “Winning here has been the biggest achievement in my whole career,” Granollers said.
“It has been a great week. I am satisfied with the work I have been doing. I think we both played a good match. The third set was pretty aggressive,” the Valencia Champion said. The third set ended in a tiebreak despite Monaco breaking early in the set. Granollers came back and broke and the match was back on serve again. The Spaniard dominated the tiebreak winning 7-3.
Valencia is Granollers’ second title of the year. The No. 34 ranked player won the clay court tournament in Gstaad this summer. He also won the tournament in Houston in 2008.
Runner up Juan Monaco was given a wildcard into the Valencia event. Monaco also had some great wins along the way to the final beating Juan Carlos Ferrero and top seed David Ferrer. “The atmosphere was exceptional. I can only express words of thanks because the audience made me feel very comfortable. I thought they would support him (Granollers) for being Spanish, but they would cheer me on too,” Monaco said
Super Duo Bob and Mike Bryan won their 75th doubles title on Sunday by overcoming Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-4 7-6 (9). The brothers are the winners of eight titles this year. “It feels good to come with another title here in the indoor season,” Mike said.
In the first set the Bryans had one break point and took the opportunity to break serve and win the set. In the second set Butorac and Rojer came back and broke but the Bryans broke straight back and forced a tiebreak in the second set. The American twins were pushed in the breaker but their experience helped them to come out on top 11-9.
“We had a fun week in Valencia and we were really impressed with how great this tournament is. Hopefully we can keep our roll going into the last few tournaments of the year,” said Mike Bryan.
Butorac and Rojer are now ranked No. 8 in the YTD rankings and they still have a chance to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski are right behind them with one more tournament to go in Paris.