Kavcic emerges champion at Bangkok Open
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Top seed Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia ended his 14-month title drought yesterday after scoring a convincing victory over Suk Young-Jeong of South Korea 6-3 6-1 in the final of the US$50,000 Chang-SAT Bangkok Open at Rama Garden Hotel.
The 26-year-old spent just 65 minutes to tame his opponent who is six years younger to him and appeared to be hampered by a back injury after playing the match with tapes stuck to his back.
The 126th-ranked player dominated play with relentless baseline hitting and powerful serves that included eight aces.
Kavcic has a haul of nine Challenger trophies with the last one coming in Furth, Germany in June 2012. The Bangkok Open title was his second success on hard court, the previous one at Qarshi in August 2010.
The final was contested under baking Bangkok sun and the former world No 68, despite facing two break points at the start, recovered to hold and break for a 2-0 lead. He secured just one break and took the first in just over 41 minutes as Suk made two successive errors.
The three-set marathon battle with second-seeded Matthew Ebden on Saturday seemed to have taken its toll on the South Korean who made one unforced error after another.
Cheers from a handful of South Korean fans failed to lift his spirits as he quickly fell behind 5-1 before dumping a backhand into the net on match point.
Kavcic, who was making his first appearance in Thailand, never dropped a set on his way to the title and left the capital US$7,200 richer from the prize money. Suk, in his first final, received US$4,240. The Slovenian will enter another challenger event this week in Shanghai where he is the top seed.
