Luxembourg lefty Gilles Muller’s persistence paid off in Sydney on Saturday night, when the 33-year-old ended his long wait for a maiden ATP title.
Muller edged Brit Dan Evans 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 in the Sydney International final, shedding the unwanted tag of being the highest-ranked player on tour without a tournament win.
The wold No.34’s breakthrough, secured in one hour and 28 minutes, came some 16 years and more than 260 matches after he first turned professional.
Muller broke down and cried during the ceremony.
“It just means so much to win for the first time in front of my boys and my wife,” Muller said.
“It’s been a great ride so far … what a night.”
Muller’s booming serve, responsible for 12 aces, and greater sense of composure was the difference. Muller missed chances to break Evans and take the first set at 5-4 and 6-5 but didn’t panic in the tiebreaker.
Muller was rewarded with $US77,980 ($A103,846), a rankings boost that will lift him into the top 30 for the first time in his life and a solid dose of confidence before his Australian Open first-round clash with American Taylor Fritz.
Evans was contesting his first ATP final. Muller had pocketed almost $US2 million in ATP prize money but fallen in five previous finals.
But even outside Muller’s homeland, whom he served as flag bearer for at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he has always been regarded on tour as a potent player on his day.
Muller lost to eventual winner Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the 2008 US Open, and Novak Djokovic was full of praise after dismissing him in a run to the 2015 Australian Open title.
“He deserves a lot of respect … he’s a great player,” Djokovic said at the time.
“It was very hard to read his serve, he’s got an exceptional sliced serve … I did find it uncomfortable.”
As did Evans, who bounced his racquet in anger during a tight first set then copped a warning for racquet abuse in the second set.
Evans hurled his weapon at the court as Muller motored to a 4-2 lead in the second, then finished the job when an unforced error helped his opponent break for the second time in the set.
Muller proceeded to serve out the match without incident. Although the momentous nature of the occasion was lost on one of his children in the crowd, who was instead fixated on an iPad in his hands.
kunming tiger
Guest
perhaps the older players are there on merit. Not to mention the fact that some of the older players in the ranings there were in younger years as well.
BrainsTrust
Guest
It shows how weak tennis is at the moment, its very bizzare so many old players are in the rankings. If you take the rankings 10 years ago there were hardly any 30 year olds in the rankings. You canl;t say because older players are lasting longer with better care as there so many players with injury problems. Is it because of all the bad publicity fanatical tennis parents have received or no one wants to put their children through the intensive hell needed to make them champions.