Rising French star Paul-Henri Mathieu won his
first ATP Tour title when he defeated seventh seed Sjeng Schalken 4-6 6-2 6-0.
Mathieu took one hour and 38 minutes to beat his Dutch opponent, and won eight
consecutive games to close out the match.
The 20-year-old becomes the first French player and first qualifier to win the
Kremlin Cup title as well as the first qualifier to win an ATP event this year.
Before this week, he had only ever reached ATP quarter-finals at Casablanca and
Long Island, both earlier this year.
Mathieu won eight matches in nine days in Moscow, losing the first set on six
occasions, including his stunning win or top seed and Moscow-based star Marat
Safin in the semi-finals.
"It's hard to realise that I won my first ATP title. It does not happen very
often that a qualifier wins an event. I've been waiting for this moment for a
long time. This is what you play tennis for," he said after the victory.
"This is the first time I have come to Russia, I don't know why the crowd was
behind me, maybe because I was the younger player."
He admitted he had struggled with nerves as much as the pace of the game in
the first set, but said he did not panic because of his experience earlier in
the tournament.
"The first set was tough, I was nervous but then again I was always losing
the first set here before winning so I knew I could come back.
"In the second and third sets I played my best tennis of the week, even
better than against Safin in the semi-finals."
He also sent a warning to the rest of the tour that he is ready to turn his
youthful promise into yet more tour victories in the future.
"I think I can improve even further and then I will see how good I can be.
Right now I want to win as many matches as possible in the last two or three
events I play this year. I have a tournament in Lyon next week so I cannot
celebrate too much tonight!"
Schalken was philosophical after the match, and said he had never
underestimated the Frenchman, even after winning the first set.
"I was the favourite today but I knew he could be dangerous. If he could beat
(Jiri) Novak and Safin...I was warned before the match," he said.
"I was actually happy to get away with winning the first set because I felt I
wasn't quick enough on my feet today. After the first set he just had an energy
explosion!"
Even though he was annoyed with losing after downing defending champion
Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the semi-finals, Schalken acknowledged the overall
performance of the younger man.
"I'm of course disappointed to lose after the big win against Kafelnikov, but
he was just the better player today. It's a pretty good effort to win a
tournament after playing eight matches."
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