Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia captured his first ATP
title with a 6-3 6-2 triumph over Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco at the Grand Prix de
Lyon indoor event.
Ljubicic's confidence has grown over the week since his first-round upset of
top seed Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and his semi-final conquest of third seeded
Russian Marat Safin.
"I'm so happy about winning my first title," Ljubicic said. "All the hard work
finally paid off. A lot of things happened for the first time this week. I
beat the number one player, Kuerten, and I won my first tournament."
Holding serve comfortably with the help of eight aces, Ljubicic broke El
Aynaoui in the fourth game of the opening set and twice in the second to cruise
to victory in his first career ATP final appearance.
"I saw that his backhand return wasn't that good, so I took advantage of that,"
Ljubicic said. "I also mixed up the game, staying back and coming to the net.
The fact that I've played a lot these past two weeks probably helped."
El Aynaoui admitted: "I didn't serve well and didn't move well today. I lacked
concentration in the beginning and didn't feel comfortable. But he just played
better and better."
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