The last time an Austrian man won the Bank Austria Tennis Trophy title, Jurgen Melzer was a seven-year-old kid with modest tennis dreams.
Today, Melzer was the man in the nation's capital city.
The 28-year-old Vienna native thrilled his hometown fans in toppling top-seeded Marin Cilic, 6-4, 6-3, to capture his first tournament title of the season. Melzer dropped just one set in five wins in dispatching Marco Chiudinelli, Dominik Hrbaty, Radek Stepanek, Janko Tipsarevic and Cilic.
"It’s always nice winning a tournament, especially winning at home is a great achievement. After all the pressure, it’s just nice to be able to win that final point to win the tournament and I’m really happy about it. It’s an unbelievable story to win at home and satisfy the crowd," said Melzer, the first Austrian to take the title since Horst Skoff beat Thomas Muster in the 1988 final. "The way I did it this week is very special. It’s tough to explain what goes through your mind and the feeling you have right now. It’s very special and you want to keep it inside as long as you can."
Melzer saved four of five break points in the match.
Melzer broke for a 3-2 second set lead and quickly consolidated fro 4-2. Cilic saved two match points serving at 3-5, but Melzer broke again to end the match.
"I knew I was in good shape. I was hitting the ball well the whole week," Melzer said. "Of course, I had a tough opponent with Marin Cilic. I’d never beaten him before, but I knew I had my chance and I took it and I’m very glad. I tried to put as much pressure on him as I can. He is obviously the one who likes to put the pressure on his opponents, likes to take the balls early. I thought I’m going to go at him with everything I have, playing the ball fast and keeping it low, I executed perfectly so I’m pretty happy with the way it went."
The 13th-ranked Cilic is trying to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals at London's O2 Arena this month, but his hopes took a hit with today's loss. Cilic, who claimed titles in Chennai and Zagreb and was runner-up to Novak Djokovic in Shanghai last month, conceded he's got quite a lot of work to do.
"I have a lot of things to improve in my game, just about everything," said Cilic. "These last two weeks will be very important for me. I really want to do everything to try and get to London."
