Barcelona, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) – Kei Nishikori topped Pablo Andujar in
the final of the Barcelona Open on Sunday to win the title for a second
consecutive year.
The top-seeded Nishikori earned a 6-4, 6-4 victory for his ninth career title
and second this year. He beat Kevin Anderson for the Memphis crown back in
February and also lost to David Ferrer in the Acapulco final two weeks later.
Nishikori could have faced Ferrer again this week, but Andujar upended his
fellow Spaniard in the semifinals on Saturday to reach his seventh career
final.
After Nishikori broke serve to capture the first set on Sunday, he quickly
fell behind in the second. Andujar opened the second set with a break and
built a 4-2 lead before the Japanese native stormed back and won the final
four games.
Nishikori dropped only one set in five matches this week and joined Rafael
Nadal, Thomas Muster, Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl, Ilie Nastase and Andres Gomez
as players to win back-to-back Barcelona titles in the Open Era.
Andujar fell to 3-4 in ATP finals. He hadn’t been past the second round in any
of his first nine events this year, including six first-round exits.
