Chennai, January 7: Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic scored a memorable singles title win to clinch the glittering Gold Flake Trophy, beating Andrei Stoliarov of Russia 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) in the ATP tour tennis championship here on Sunday. In the doubles event, justifying their billing, top seeded brothers combine of Byron Black and Wayne Black (Zimbabwe) won the title outclassing Barry Cowan (Britain) and Mose Navarra (Italy) 6-3, 6-4 in final. The singles rivals were playing each other for the first time and also had not met in an ATP final before. Tabara was more quick on his feet and had variety in his fast paced game. Though Stoliarov had huge serves and effectively played his double handed backhand returns for points, he often showed an urgency to finish after rallies, making a lot of unforced errors. Tabara broke Stoliarov in the fifth game of the first set on a break point and at love in the seventh game for a 5-2 lead. In the eighth, Tabara sent down two aces for the game and the set. The second set saw a much improved Stoliarov breaking Tabara in the second game. But the Czech gained the initiative with two superb close to the lines winners. An unforced error by Tabara helped Stoliarov break back. From there, the rivals never gave away anything, though Stoliarov had two openings for breaks in the sixth and eighth games. In both games, he had three break points, but committed silly errors. The set meandered to a tie break. Tabara rode on Stoliarov’s mistakes and led 5-2. Though Stoliarov managed to score two points, Tabara took a brace of points. Serving for the match, he passed Stoliarov with a superb forehand down the line to emerge a winner. Tabara also earned 35 valuable ATP points and carried home prize money of $ 54,000, while Stoliarov, with 24 points, received $ 31,500. Black brothers were the only seeded players to figure in the final of the tournament, which saw the other seeds falling by the wayside both in the singles and doubles, and they came up with one of the best efforts in their career spanning 20 wins and 12 loses. But they were made to work hard for the victory as Cowan and Navarra, who shut the doors on second seeded Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi in the semi-finals, gave a tough fight. The Italian in particular was able to raise his game whenever needed. But, the Black brothers, playing an ATP Tour final for the first time after their semi-final entry at Newport in 1996, clicked well as a team compared to their rivals once they started reading their left and right combination.
