ATP Challenger: Gerald Melzer wins title in Lima

Gerald Melzer won the final of the ATP-Challenger tournament in Lima: the Lower Austrian defeated Jozef Kovalik from Slovakia in two short sets.

The matter lasted 2:06 hours in the Peruvian capital, then Gerald Melzer got 80 points for the ATP world ranking. And just about the tournament victory in Lima, which will improve the Austrian Davis Cup player to 119th place in the rankings appearing on Monday. Particularly impressive: Melzer did not have to give a single set throughout the entire tournament, and even a break in the second set against Kovalik could not be ignored.

Melzer had already been in two Challengern finals this season, but lost in both Quito and Cortina. Last week, the left-hander reached the final round of Buenos Aires, where he lost to Horacio Zeballos.

Julia Grabher also reached a final at the ITF tournament in Santa Margherita Di Pula (US$25,000). Grabher had taken the top seeded Polona Hercog out of the quarter-finals with 7:6 (4), 6:2; in the final she was defeated by the Italian Jessica Pieri with 4:6,1:6.

Barbara Haas entered the semi-finals in Istanbul/Turkey (US$25,000). The top seeded Austrian, however, was defeated by the Russian Vitalia Diatchenko with 6:3,2:6,0:6.

In Antalya/Turkey (15,000 US dollars) Pascal Brunner also made it to the semifinals, where he lost to top seed Javier Marti from Spain 6-3,7-6 (4), 1-6.