Lapentti Back on Top in Palermo Clay Championship
Posted on October 1, 2006Ecuadorian veteran Nicolas Lapentti is back in the tennis spotlight Saturday after reaching the Palermo final, where he will play the second-seeded Italian Filippo Volandri.
Lapentti had little trouble with a punishing 6-2, 6-1 win over eighth-seeded Spaniard Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo.
Lapentti, who ranked as high as No. 6 in 1999, slipped out of the Top 100 and off the tennis radar until this week where the 30-year-old finds himself in his first ATP final since 2003 Bastad.
Volandri had an even easier time advancing on the red clay after his opponent, the fourth-seeded Nicolas Alamgro, retired with a left foot injury down 6-1, 2-1.
Volandri will be looking to make amends for falling in the final in front of his native fans, having lost in the Palermo final to Igor Andreev in 2005 and Tomas Berdych in 2004.
Volandri is 1-6 in career finals (all on clay), with two of those runner-up finishes coming this year in Buenos Aires (l. Moya) and Bucharest two weeks ago (l. Melzer). His lone title came in St. Poelten in 2004.
Lapentti had little trouble with a punishing 6-2, 6-1 win over eighth-seeded Spaniard Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo.
Lapentti, who ranked as high as No. 6 in 1999, slipped out of the Top 100 and off the tennis radar until this week where the 30-year-old finds himself in his first ATP final since 2003 Bastad.
Volandri had an even easier time advancing on the red clay after his opponent, the fourth-seeded Nicolas Alamgro, retired with a left foot injury down 6-1, 2-1.
Volandri will be looking to make amends for falling in the final in front of his native fans, having lost in the Palermo final to Igor Andreev in 2005 and Tomas Berdych in 2004.
Volandri is 1-6 in career finals (all on clay), with two of those runner-up finishes coming this year in Buenos Aires (l. Moya) and Bucharest two weeks ago (l. Melzer). His lone title came in St. Poelten in 2004.