Czech star Tomáš Berdych lost the Rotterdam Open Championship title that he held since last year, and which he persistently defended after suffering a defeat from his Swiss rival Stan Wawrinka, with results of 4-6، 3-6، 6-4, to crown Wawrinka with the 42nd Rotterdam Open Tennis Championship, for men, in the singles category.
The championship, also known as ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, is held annually In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, on an indoor hard court, and with a total prize of €1.6m.
The Rotterdam championship is important because it falls within the ATP world competitions, and adds 500 points to the winner’s score in the international classification of the game, which makes it the second biggest competition, after the Grand Slam tournaments, raising Stan Wawrinka’s score after winning the title to 4550 points, which puts him in 8th place in the International Classification, after Tomáš Berdych in 7th place.
Last month, the Swiss player Stan Wawrinka was crowned the Chennai Open Champion, scoring 250 points. He also reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament before losing to No 1-ranked Serbian player Novak Djokovic, who won the first Grand Slam of 2015. Meanwhile, Czech Tomáš Berdych did not yet receive any titles, having peaked at reaching the final of the Qatar Open, only to lose to the Spaniard David Ferrer, with scores of 4-6, 5-7. He also reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the second time after defeating Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals, but failed to reach the final game after losing four sets to Andy Murray in the semi-finals.
As for their path in the championship, Tomáš Berdych reached the finals for the second year in a row, after beating the German Tobias Kamke, ranked 99th globally, in the first round of the tournament with a score of 1-6, 5-7. This was followed by winning over the Italian Andreas Seppi, ranked 35th globally, with scores of 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, in the second round of the championship. In the quarter-finals, French Gaël Monfils ranked 21st globally, exceeded with scores of 6-1, 6-4. This came prior to him luckily avoiding facing the first candidate for the championship, ranked 4th globally, British Andy Murray who lost the quarter-finals match against French player Gilles Simon ranked 19th in the International Classification, so the French player reached the semi-finals in the biggest surprise of the championship, after which Berdych easily won over C. Simon, with scores of, 1-6, 2-6.
Stan Wawrinka’s path towards the finals was a bit harder, as he began his participation in the championship by winning over the unranked Dutch player Jesse Huta Galung, with scores of 3-6, 3-6, 6-3. He then won his second victory in the second round of the championship over the Spaniard, Guillermo García-López, ranked 27th globally, with score of 6-7, 6-4, 6-2. In the quarter-finals, he exceeded the Luxembourg player Gilles Müller, ranked 37th globally, with score of 7-6, 6-3, to run against the Canadian player Milos Raonic in the semi-finals second candidate for the championship and holder of the 6th place in the world rankings. Wawrinka was successful in ending the game with a hard win of 6-7, 6-7.
The team of Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer and Roman Horia Tecău, holders of the 13th place in the International Classification of teams, won the doubles championship title, after defeating the team of British Jamie Murray and Australian John Peers in the final match, with score of 8-10, 3-6, 6-3.
Last year’s championship title was won by the Frenchmen Michaël Llodra and Nicolas Mahut. Llodra chose not to participate this year, while his mate Mahut participated with Vasek Pospisil, but they left the championship from the first round after losing to Julien Benneteau and Édouard Roger-Vasselin.
The team of J-J Rojer and H Tecău succeeded in reaching the finals after winning over the team of the Swedish Robert Lindstedt and his Polish mate, Marcin Matkowski, in the first round with scores of 5-7, 2-6. This was followed by winning over the Pakistani Asim Matkowski and his Serbian mate Nenad Zimonjić, in the quarter-finals with scores of 6-7, 6-7. In the semi-final, they won over the German Andre Begemann and his Dutch mate Robin Haase, with scores of 3-6, 6-7.
