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Thomas Enqvist continued his 100%
record on the ATP Champions Tour in 2009 by beating Goran Ivanisevic
in the final of the inaugural Chengdu Open to win his third title of
the year.
His 7-5, 6-2 win extended the
Swede’s lead at the top of the South African Airways Champions Tour
Rankings. Afterwards, Enqvist explained what makes the ATP Champions
Tour so special.
“It’s all the good parts of
tennis,” he said.
“You don’t have the stress
anymore, you don’t have the pressure anymore, you just go out there
and have fun. Obviously, when you’re on the court, you want to do
well, but the most important thing is that you enjoy yourself and
you give the crowd a good match.”
This was the first year that an
event had been played in Chengdu, China, and all of the players came
away with a great impression.
“I had five fantastic days here,”
said Enqvist.
“The court is very nice to play
on, I had four great matches and I really enjoyed myself out on the
court. Everybody has been treating us really nice so hopefully we
can come back and play next year.”
Despite his disappointment in the
final, Ivanisevic added:
“This is one of the greatest
stadiums I’ve ever played in in my life, and the people are very
friendly - they really enjoy that we are here and we enjoy to be
here. For me it was great that I was with two of my greatest idols
in my group. First Bjorn Borg and then John McEnroe. Hopefully I
can come back next year.”
Former World No.1 Yevgeny
Kafelnikov finished in third place, beating Pat Cash 7-5, 6-3.
The ATP Champions Tour culminates
in London at the Royal Albert Hall where Ivanisevic and Cash will do
battle with Pat Rafter, Stefan Edberg, Greg Rusedski, Cedric Pioline,
Mark Philippoussis and Younes El Aynaoui. The event takes place 1-6
December.
In 2010, new events in Delray
Beach, Florida (February 20-23) and Zurich, Switzerland (March 9-13)
have already been added to the calendar.
To qualify to play on the ATP
Champions Tour, players must have been either a World No.1, Grand
Slam singles finalist or a singles player on a Davis Cup winning
team. Each event can also invite two wild card entrants of their
choice.
BJORN BORG ON AUTOBIOGRAPHIES,
DEL POTRO AND HIS DREAM MATCH
Bjorn Borg addressed the questions
of readers of the ATP Champions Tour website in Chengdu last week,
and gave some illuminating answers. Will he ever write an
autobiography? What does he think of Juan Martin Del Potro, and if
he could play anyone in history, who would he choose? All of the
answers and more can be found here:
http://www.atpchampionstour.com/qa_borg1.html
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