Victor Estrella from the Dominican Republic celebrates after defeating top seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain to win the ATP Ecuador Open on Sunday. Dolores Ochoa / AP / February 8, 2015
Victor Estrella from the Dominican Republic celebrates after defeating top seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain to win the ATP Ecuador Open on Sunday. Dolores Ochoa / AP / February 8, 2015
Victor Estrella from the Dominican Republic celebrates after defeating top seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain to win the ATP Ecuador Open on Sunday. Dolores Ochoa / AP / February 8, 2015
Victor Estrella from the Dominican Republic celebrates after defeating top seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain to win the ATP Ecuador Open on Sunday. Dolores Ochoa / AP / February 8, 2015

Tennis bits: Victor Estrella makes history in Quito; Grigor Dimitrov kicks off packed ATP Rotterdam


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ATP Quito

Victor Estrella Burgos became the oldest player to lift a maiden ATP Tour title and the first from the Dominican Republic when he upset world No 14 Feliciano Lopez to win the Ecuador Open on Sunday.

The 34-year-old beat the Spanish first seed 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5) in the ATP 250 clay court tournament, a day after he played in and lost his first doubles final on tour.

"I was nervous at the beginning but thank God I was able to win the first ATP in Quito and the first for me," Estrella Burgos was quoted as saying by Ecuadorean daily El Comercio.

The world No 73 rated his good preparation for the rarefied air at nearly 3,000 metres in Quito, saying: “Today I felt as if I was playing at sea level. I felt very good on court.”

ATP Zagreb

Third seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain won the Zagreb ATP Indoor Open on Sunday, beating Italy’s Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in the final.

Seppi, conqueror of Roger Federer in the Australian Open, twice held the advantage but on both occasions let it slip.

It took the Spaniard 1hr 36min to break down Seppi, who led the first set tie break 4-1 before Garcia-Lopez reeled off the next six points to win the set.

Seppi broke first in the second set for 3-2 but again Garcia-Lopez turned things around by winning four games in a row to clinch victory.

“I’m very happy, this was an extremely difficult match, it was hard to earn a point,” Garcia-Lopez, the world No 33, said.

ATP Montpellier

Frenchman Richard Gasquet won his 11th ATP event on Sunday as he defeated Jerzy Janowicz in the Montpellier final when the Polish No 1 retired sick at 3-0 down in the first set.

Gasquet, who also won the event in 2013, was playing in his third final in a row at Montpellier and 23rd of his career since making his professional debut in 2002.

The 28-year-old – who boasts two grand slam semi-final appearances at Wimbledon in 2007 (lost to Roger Federer) and US Open in 2013 (lost to Rafael Nadal) – had avenged his defeat in last year’s final to compatriot Gael Monfils in beating him in straight sets in Saturday’s semi-final.

ATP Rotterdam

The Rotterdam Open begins later on Monday, with world No 13 Ernests Gulbis in action against highly-rated 21-year-old Austrian Dominic Thiem (world No 45) the highlight match to watch out for.

World No 11 Grigor Dimitrov will also be in action against Pierre-Henri Mathieu and a German prodigy, the world No 135 Alexander Zverev, 17, faces a major test in his young career against world No 16 Roberto Bautista-Agut, the Spanish veteran.

Simone Bolelli will also meet Lukas Rosol in the first match of the day. Another highly-rated youth, Belgian world No 21 David Goffin, later faces Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.

The Rotterdam ATP, in addition to the likes of Dimitrov and Gulbis, features top seed Andy Murray, and other top-10 ranked players Milos Raonic, Tomas Berdych and Stan Wawrinka.

WTA Antwerp

The Proximus Diamond Games start on Tuesday featuring a crowded field that includes Eugenie Bouchard, Angelique Kerber, Andrea Petkovic, Lucie Safarova, Dominika Cibulkova, Alize Cornet and others.

Bouchard, the top seed, has a bye and will face either Mona Barthel or a qualifier in the last 16.

On Tuesday young Swiss star Belinda Bencic faces Cornet in a challenging duel, and fifth seed Carla Suarez Navarro will meet Camila Giorgi of Italy.

ATP Sao Paulo

The Brasil Open will start on Monday with world No 30 Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay facing 43rd-ranked Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic.

The indoor clay tournament, featuring Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Tommy Robredo as its top seeds, will host host matches between Albert Ramos and world No 225 Guilherme Clezar, and Nicolas Almagro and Blaz Rola on Monday.

ATP Memphis

The Memphis Open begins in the United States on Monday as Ivan Dodig and Teymuraz Gabashvili clash, as do Donald Young and Adrian Mannarino.

Those opening matches will give way later to Marinko Matosevic and Dustin Brown doing battle before an all-American clash features two of the country’s hopes for the future: 18-year-old Jared Donaldson, who debuted in the US Open proper last year, and 17-year-old Stefan Kozlov, a two-time runner up in junior grand slam finals.

WTA Pattaya

The Thai WTA tournament begins on Tuesday as Peng Shuai of China leads the tournament as its top seed.

She’ll be challenged by second-seeded Elina Svitolina, who reached the third round of the Australian Open and took Serena Williams to three sets, and third-seeded Kazakh Zarina Diyas. Japan’s Kurumi Nara is the tournament’s fourth seeded player.

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