Bautista Agut Beats Berdych For Doha Crown, 9th Career Title

Roberto Bautista Agut capped one of his best weeks of tennis Saturday beating Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to capture his first career title in Doha.

Bautista Agut upended Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic and today Berdych en route to his 9th trophy.

“It’s always a very tough draw, very tough tournament with a lot of good players in the draw. And when I started the week, I was feeling good with the ball,” Bautista Agut said. “I was enjoying practising. I was playing match by match. And since the first moment of the tournament until the last point, I felt really good on the court.”

The 24th-ranked Agut only moves up one spot in the rankings, but the win should do wonders for his confidence.

“It was a great start to the season,” Bautista Agut said “I wish to feel good physically, mentally, like I am now, like I felt this week. And if this happens, I think I can get better in the Rankings, and why not be closer to the Top 10?”

Despite the defeat, it was a very positive week for former Top 5 Berdych who was playing his first event since Queen’s due to a back injury.

“It was overall a very good match and I think the biggest difference was one game in the third set where I lost badly my serve where I hit two double faults in one game,” Berdych said. “In such a tight match, just made the big difference and that’s why I think Roberto won today, because he was playing well overall and he had a great week.”