Argentine world number 11 Juan Monaco is still on course to seal one of the remaining spots at the year-end World Tour Finals after winning the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2012 title on Sunday. Monaco beat 34th-ranked Julien Benneteau of France 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in a match that lasted more than three hours.
This is Monaco’s seventh career title and the 2012 season has been his most successful so far with four title wins. A couple of months ago, he made his debut in the world’s top ten and his impressive performance at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil makes him a strong contender to become one of the final eight players to compete at the year-end championships which takes place in London in November.
“I’m very happy. We sang a little and went a little bit crazy with the team in the locker room. This week was perfect,” the 28-year old Argentinian said. Monaco continues his journey in the Asian swing of tennis tournaments and will participate at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships which begins this week.
The loss at the final means that Benneateau, 31, is still searching for his first career title.
“My elbow was not feeling so good. I felt something wrong during the warm up. But it was better in the second and third set. The fans were great today. Lots of French fans as well. It was a good court, good final and great atmosphere,” he said.
Meanwhile, the doubles event has been contested earlier in the day with the third-seeded Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil winning their first title together with a 5-7, 7-5, 10-7 victory against unseeded British pair Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming.
