HCMC – Juan Monaco from Argentina won the Heineken Stars 2010 tennis competition at HCMC’s Phu Tho sports center on Saturday after beating Mardy Fish from the U.S. 2-1 in the final.
Monaco, who currently ranks 33rd on the ATP table, defeated world No. 19 Fish 6-3 in the first set. The American dominated the second set at 6-1 but Monaco earned a 6-3 victory in the third for the US$40,000 winner’s prize.
David Nalbandian of Argentina, Tommy Haas of Germany and Robby Ginepri of the U.S. had pulled out of this year’s tournament at the last minute because of injuries. Juan Monaco from Argentina, Tommy Robredo from Spain and Mardy Fish from the U.S were the replacements.
Monaco was a winner of the Austria Open, Buenos Aires and Poertschach in 2007 and he won two men’s doubles titles in Valencia and Auckland in 2008. Robredo earned nine ATP World Tour men’s singles titles and three ATP World Tour men’s doubles titles.
Meanwhile, Mardy Fish is the 2008 US Open quarterfinalist and the silver medalist at Olympic Athens 2004. The U.S. player lost to Roger Federer 1-2 at the ATP Masters Tour 1000 Cincinnati in the finals. Fish also was an ATP London 2010 finalist after beating Andy Murray in the semis.
Monaco went into Saturday’s decider with a 2-0 win over Sam Querrey from the U.S. in the semifinal on Friday 7-6, 6-2. Fish had overcome Tommy Robredo from Spain 6-3, 7-6 in the other semi.
Fish came second, receiving US$20,000. The third places went to Querrey, who ranks 22nd in the world and world No. 42 Robredo, who walked off with US$10,000 each.
Heineken Stars 2010, the third tennis tournament in Vietnam featuring current leading professionals, was organized by the Vietnam Tennis Federation, Heineken’s producers Vietnam Brewery Ltd., and the locally based TLT Sports Marketing Co.
The second tournament in 2008 drew Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, Robin Soderling and Mardy Fish. Tsonga was the champion after defeating Soderling.
