TENNIS NEWS – RICHARD KRAJICEK HOSTS ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL WEEK IN ROTTERDAM – TSONGA BEATS GOFFIN IN PACKED FINALS

Written by: Staff on 19th February 2017

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TENNIS NEWS - RICHARD KRAJICEK HOSTS ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL WEEK IN ROTTERDAM - TSONGA BEATS GOFFIN IN PACKED FINALS |

Photo by ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament via Facebook.

Successful week in Rotterdam ends with Tsonga beating Goffin for title

By Ricky Dimon

ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament director Richard Krajicek must be pleased with this week’s event even though some of the marquee attractions in the participant field withdrew prior to the event’s start. Although Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka were missed, other players picked up the slack.

Krajicek put in commendable effort to replace Nadal and Wawrinka with other top-five players but to avail.

Still, the field featured Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, David Goffin, Tomas Berdych, Grigor Dimitrov, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Lucas Pouille, Benoit Paire, Borna Coric, Richard Gasquet, Fernando Verdasco, Alexander Zverev, Mischa Zverev, Denis Istomin, Feliciano Lopez, and Gilles Simon.

Tsonga, a fan favorite everywhere he goes, ended up capturing the title with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Goffin on Sunday afternoon. Tsonga also picked up wins over rising star Stefanos Tsitsipas, recent Sydney champion Gilles Muller, Cilic, and Berdych before overcoming Goffin in one hour and 55 minutes.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France after winning the final match of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament against David Goffin of Belgium in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 19 February 2017. EPA/KOEN SUYK

“I’m really happy,” the Frenchman assured. “These titles come at the right moments. The last couple of months I put in a lot of effort to come back to this level. It’s a huge reward for me and it gives me new expectations for the rest of the year.

“I changed my serve and worked a lot on my backhand and my returns. I also changed my strings. There were many things to improve my game and do things better. Today it’s a reward and I will try to be better and better. In the second set, I had another mentality on court. I was more aggressive and it made the difference.”

Even in defeat, Goffin will remember Rotterdam as the sport where he broke into the top 10 for the first time in his career. The Belgian guaranteed a debut in the top 10 when he took down a red-hot Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals and good friend Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the semis.

“It was a great week in the end,” Goffin commented. “There was a lot of emotion this week and I won a lot of matches. I was a bit tired today. I started the final really well, but in the end Jo played better than me, especially in the third set. Of course I’m disappointed, but I played some good tennis and will be in the Top 10 on Monday.”