Kutsenko reigns supreme

For the Austrian it was going to be a tough act to pull it off. After coming through the qualifying matches, Wiltschnig had a tough opening round against Bernardo Mota which he won in three sets. Then in the semis, he played the match of his life against the second seed Oleg Ogrodov.

For a player with an exagerated foot work and power packed ground strokes it was like going to the Himalayan rally with an empty tank. Relatively Kutsenko’s path to the final was much smoother.

Kutsenko’s domination was complete from start. His ploy was to work the ball around for most part of the game at a teasing length and induce Wiltschnig into making errors. And to make matters worse for the Austrian, Kutsenko time and again came up with some brilliant winners specially from his backhand.

Wiltschnig walked straight into trouble. Trailing 0-5 after conceding two service games and within 20 minutes the first set was his with a 6-1 scoreline.

Wiltschning made a comeback of sorts in the next set. The players were even at 3-3, but Wiltsching double faulted in the seventh game to give a 3-4 lead to his rival. Thereafter Kutsenko went for the kill to close in the match at 6-4.

The doubles final, saw the top seeded pair of Emaueal Couto and Joao Cunha-Silva getting the better of second seeded Goichi Motomura of Japan and Oleg Ogorodov of Uzbekistan. The Portugese duo, who seemed more adapted to doubles won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in one hour 45 minutes.

RESULTS (all finals)

Singles: Vadim Kutsenko (Uzbekistan) bt Herbert Wiltschnig (Austria) 6-1, 6-4; Doubles: Emaueal Couto (Portugal) & Joao Cunha-Silva (Portugal) bt Goichi Motomura (Japan) & Oleg Ogorodov (Uzbekistan) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.