Stakhovsky, Melzer, Ljubicic Capture Titles

Finals galore today. Well, three. I don’t know what the galore threshhold is.

First up, congratulations to qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky, who beat Argentine Horacio Zeballos 26 76(8) 76(7) for the St Petersburg title. It’s the Ukrainian’s second title, the first coming in Zagreb 2008. Commiserations to Zeballos but it’s been a great week for him, too, backing up some solid results on the Challenger circuit. And I can now almost pick him out of a lineup.

I’m not a huge fan of Stakhovsky, in terms of either his game or his personality (this will be a theme in today’s titlists), and mainly remember him for being Andy Murray’s defeated opponent in the US Open juniors. But given that his game had completely fallen away after a strong start to the year, it’s a great result for him to be back in the winner’s circle.

And well done to Flemski, the British duo of Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski, who took their second ATP doubles title by defeating Chardy and Gasquet 10-4 in the super tiebreak. Wonder if they’ll be able to talk their way into first class this time … I doubt it.

In Lyon, despite the prevalence of French players, the title went to grumpy old baldy Ivan Ljubicic, who kicked it old school by defeating Michael Llodra 75 63 for his first title since 2007.

And in Vienna, Jurgen Melzer irritated me exceedingly by beating Marin Cilic 64 63 for the title. From what I saw of the match (my stream was very poor quality), Marin was as usual defeated by his own inconsistency, but Melzer was extremely solid. Well done to him; it’s nice for him to win a title on home soil after his last final in Kitzbuhel when a certain JMDP beat him during the halcyon summer of 2008. Good times.

Congratulations to all …