Clement Strong, Ancic Folds in ATP Marseille Final

Arnaud Clement, given a wildcard this week at the Open 13 in Marseille when his ranking wasn't high enough to make the main draw, realized a dream Sunday with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic to claim his first title in three years.

"It's the event I wanted to win most," said Clement, from nearly Aix-en-Provence, who was the runner-up in 1999 to countryman Fabrice Santoro. "This was a dream week, one of the best in my whole career. It's good to win again after two tough years. It was quite a long time since I have played at such a level. I could not ask for anything else."

The No. 67-ranked Frenchman posted a huge three-set upset over Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Nadal, playing in his first event of the year after a foot injury, saw his play drop off in the semifinal against Clement as he was stung by a bee at the indoor event.

"Today he was simply overwhelming," said Ancic of Clement, with the Croatian who is frequently overwhelmed in finals seeing his career mark drop to 1-5 in championship matches. "There was nothing I could do. He was simply too strong for me."

Last month in Adelaide Ancic thumped Clement 6-0, 6-2.

In the doubles final No. 4-seeded Czechs Damm/Stepanek ousted top seeds Knowles/Nestor in a third-set match tiebreak 10-3 for their first team title of the year.

"I'm also lucky to have a great substitute because every time my regular partner [Leander Paes] is not available, Radek is ready to play with me," said Damm, who with Stepanek won what was a repeat of last year's final. "Obviously I have to play well as well. It's been a great week."