Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic will have to
wait at least another week to claim his first career ATP title.
Stepanek, the fourth seed, fell to No. 5 Robin Soderling of Sweden on Sunday,
6-3 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-3), in a dramatic final of the Milan Indoors
tennis tournament.
Soderling, who recorded his second ATP title, also needed three sets to beat
Max Mirnyi in Saturday's semi-finals.
The 20-year-old Soderling, who was ousted in the first round of the Australian
Open, earned his first win last year at Lyon.
Soderling, who was facing Stepanek for the first time, was the first Swede to
reach the final here since 1985, when Anders Jarryd lost to John McEnroe.
He became the third Swede to win here after Bjorn Borg (1978) and Stefan
Edberg (1984).
"This is a very special win because I know that Borg and Edberg had won this
title," Soderling said.
"It is nice to have my name next to them and it's great to win my second
title. When you win your first title it could be by chance, but if you win your
second title you really believe you belong up there and you realize you can win
many more."
The 26-year-old Stepanek - the first Czech to reach the final here since Petr
Korda in 1994 - upset second seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia in the semi-finals to
advance to his second career final.
He also reached the last round at the Tennis Masters Series event in Paris
last year.
"It was disappointing that after winning all my tiebreaks this week I lost
the final and most important one," Stepanek said.
Soderling served 18 aces and never faced a break point in the match, which
lasted 1 hour, 57 minutes.
"I served very well today and that was the key of the match," Soderling
said.
"If I serve like this, it is difficult to break me. I lost my serve only
once during this tournament (in 67 service games, against Arnaud Clement in the
first round) and it had never happened to me before.
"I hope to continue to serve like this and to improve my return, and maybe
2005 could be my year."
"I had my chances but he served too well today. It came down to a couple of
points and he took them," Stepanek said.
"That's the way tennis is. I am still happy with my results this week and
the way I started the year.
"I am on the right track."
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