Robredo nets Barça crown
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ByEurosport
Published 02/05/2004 at 16:50 GMT
Spaniard Tommy Robredo won a tightly contested Barcelona Open final on Sunday, beating former champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-3 4-6 6-2 3-6 6-3 for his second career clay-court tile in a gruelling four-hour, rally-packed match.
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Robredo dominated at the start, breaking Gaudio's service in the second game and consolidating his lead with assured and imaginative shots to claim the set, while the less focused Argentine clung cautiously to the baseline.
Thirteenth seed Gaudio, who won the tournament in 2002, came out more aggressively in the second set, however, challenging Robredo at the net.
Although the change of tactics initially seemed to generate more errors than points, an undaunted Gaudio came back from 2-4 down to win the set.
A refocused Robredo gave his opponent room to claim only two games in the third set, which he sealed with two successive aces in the eighth game.
The eighth-seeded Spaniard was relaxed as he began the fourth set, but then lost his concentration allowing Gaudio to break his serve and go on to level the scores.
In the final set a tired-looking Robredo struggled at first to hold onto his own service games but revived enough to break Gaudio's serve in the sixth game and go 4-2 up.
The Argentine looked to have a chance when he built up a 40-15 lead as Robredo was serving for the match, but the Spaniard called a break for physiotherapy on a leg that had been troubling him throughout the match, and returned to claim the title.
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