Guillermo Coria is becoming a force to be reckoned with.
The third-seeded Coria extended his streak of consecutively won sets to 32 with a 7-5 6-1 triumph over David Ferrer, achieved in one hour and five minutes in the final of the Idea Prokom Open.
Following victories at Stuttgart and Kitzbuhel, Coria became the first player to win three consecutive tournaments since Thomas Muster in 1996.
"I'm really glad that I managed to win a third title in a row," said the 21-year-old Argentinian.
"I thought it would be easier to beat Ferrer, but I had to give my best, especially in the first set."
Coria has won four titles in 2003, also claiming the Tennis Masters event in Hamburg, and is nearly unbeatable on clay, where he ran his record to 37-5.
This was his fifth career title. Before Sunday, the last Argentinian to win four titles in one year was Martin Jaite in 1989.
Coria is also the last from his country to capture three events in a row since Jose Luis Clerc in 1983, and the first to do it on clay since Guillermo Vilas in 1977.
Ferrer, an unseeded Spaniard, fell to 1-2 lifetime against Coria and 17-20 this year.
"I was playing against one of the two best clay-court players in the world," said Ferrer, with Juan Carlos Ferrero, the French Open champion, presumably his number one pick.
"Maybe I feel a little disappointed about the score, but on the other hand, Guillermo is unbelievably patient and a consistent player."
Coria had a break point at 4-0, but Ferrer held serve. At 5-2, the 21-year-old Spaniard broke Coria's serve and reeled off three straight games to even things at 5-5.
But Coria broke back and held serve to capture the first set. He opened the second with a service break and cruised to victory.
"In the beginning, (Ferrer) made many mistakes, but just when I started to feel confident he started to relax and play much better," said Coria.
"When he managed to score from 1-5 to 5-5, I still knew that I was going to win the match.
"I tried to force Ferrer to play my tennis."
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