Victor Estrella Burgos beat the top seed Feliciano Lopez in the final of the inaugural Ecuador Open and became the oldest first-time ATP title winner. The 34-year-old from the Dominican Republic claimed a 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5) victory over the Spanish world number 14 at the clay-court tournament. Estrella Burgos was the first Dominican to reach a top-level ATP final. Seeded eight and ranked 73, he defeated Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in Saturday’s semi-final. The recently named Dominican Sportsman of the Year is also the first from the Dominican Republic to achieve such a feat. Burgos is the second player ranked outside the Top 50 to win a title this year following World No. 63 Jiri Vesely, who won in Auckland last month.
Both players failed to break the other in the 12 second-set games so a tie-break ensued which Lopez won 7-5 to force a deciding set. Estrella Burgos was not to be deterred and after holding serve he broke Lopez for the third time and held once again to establish a 3-0 third-set lead. Lopez broke back to level at 4-4 and both players held their next service games before playing their way into a deciding breaker. The Spaniard still refused to roll over but Estrella Burgos finally got over the line to make history.
“The truth is that Quito has become a very special city for me,” Burgos said. “Today has been a very tough day for me where I was a set up, and later I lost the tie-break. In the third set I was up a break, and I didn’t manage the nerves well.
“I got a little bit nervous, but thanks to God, I relaxed a bit in the tie-break, and I was able to win the mini-break and win the match.”
“One of my goals for this season was to be in the final again, and to win a title again,” he said. “One is achieved and another one might be… I am feeling really well.
During the final Lopez became only the ninth player in history to reach 7,000 career aces.
But he admitted Burgos “practically dominated the whole match”.
“In the tie-break I was ahead, and then I had a very easy backhand shot that I missed and that killed me,” said Lopez. “It would have put me at 5-4 with two serves. That would have been a good opportunity, but tennis is like this.”
“This was not an easy match,” he said. “I served well in the tiebreaker and played better tennis in the second set.”
Ecuador Open: Estrella Burgos becames the oldest first-time ATP title winner
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