Ferrer Wins 2015 Malaysian Open Tennis Championship

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- World number eight David Ferrer clinched the 2015 Malaysian Open Tennis Championship (MOKL) title after beating his good friend Feliciano Lopez in the final at the Putra Indoor Stadium, Bukit Jalil here Sunday. After five appearances at the MOKL, top seed Ferrer was crowned champion after defeating his Spanish compatriot 7-5 and 7-5 in 1 hour 33 minutes. "Today (Sunday) was my best match in the MOKL. Lopez was a good player but I'm happy I did very good serves and won the tournament...glad that I played consistently. It was important that I saved the first set to pull my confidence up for the whole match. "I totally was focused on the game. In a game, I always want to enjoy the moment because when I'm done with tennis, I can remember it," Ferrer told reporters after the prize-giving ceremony. Ferrer took home the winner's purse of US$170,600 (RM752,772) while Lopez, making his third appearance in the MOKL, received US$89,840 (RM396,419). The prizes were given away by Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. Lopez, ranked 17th, admitted that he got emotional on court due to his passion to play better tennis but he could not beat the aggressive Ferrer. "I just wanted to do better but he was better than me. He was aggressive, I could do nothing to beat him. I thought my serves were good but it was a tough match. He was very fast," said Lopez. Meanwhile, second seeded pair Treat Huey of the Philippines/Henri Kontinen of Finland claimed the men's doubles title after upsetting South Africa's Raven Klaasen/Rajeev Ram of the United States in the final. Klaasen/Ram, who first teamed up at the Manchester Challenge in June and won their first ATP World Tour title together in Halle also in June, lost to Huey/Kontinen 7-6(4) and 6-2 in 1:17:41. "Game today (Sunday), it was really cool...Henri was trying to come back in the first set. We played well since we teamed up together for the first time. It always good to play here where as there are many Philippines' fans here to cheer for me, that made it so special," said Huey. Kontinen said it was really important to get along with the pair partner to make sure they understood each other well and always remained on the same page. The doubles crown came with US$51,820 (RM228,655) prize money and 250 ATP ranking points. -- BERNAMA