November 25, 2007
Sergi Bruguera won his seventh BlackRock Tour of Champions title of 2007 to cement his place as the No.1 player of the year in the South African Airways Champions Tour Rankings.
With just the year-ending BlackRock Masters Tennis in London still to come, Bruguera lifted the Nossa Caixa Grand Champions Brasil title in Sao Paulo with a 7-6(3), 6-4 win over Fernando Meligeni.
In a high-quality match, Bruguera scraped through the first set tie-break, and then scored the only service-break of the match at 4-4 in the second set.
“Winning is always a good feeling!” said Bruguera afterwards.
“It’s especially nice to win in Sao Paulo on my first visit to Brazil. Everything was perfect. There was a nice ambiance and great organization. The matches were fun and I had a really good time. It was a very close match. Fernando was very motivated because he was playing in front of all his fans and friends. I think he played very well.”
Meligeni was certainly happy with his week’s work.
“It was a very special week,” he said.
“I had all of my family and friends here this week. To come back after being away from tennis for almost five years is great. They were four unbelievable days - incredible moments for me. I’m very happy and I hope I will play more next year.”
In the third/fourth place play-off in Sao Paulo, Mats Wilander defeated Andres Gomez 4-6, 6-4, 10-4 (Champions’ Tie-break).
Bruguera will now travel to the BlackRock Masters Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall in London, 4-9 December for the biggest event of the year. He has yet to win the title there.
“To play in the Royal Albert Hall is great, the ambiance is unbelievable there. People really enjoy good tennis over there. It’s going to be fun. The surface is fast and it’s difficult to play from the baseline so it’s not the best conditions for me,” he said.
He will face tough competition from six fellow qualifiers – French pair Henri Leconte, Cedric Pioline, former French Open champion Thomas Muster, defending champion Paul Haarhuis, Belfast titlist Anders Jarryd and the 1991 Wimbledon winner, Michael Stich.
Bjorn Borg has received the first of five wild cards.
