Veteran success: Gasquet, Garcia-Lopez, and Estrella Burgos

It was a great week for veterans on the ATP Tour. The three title winners have a combined 39 years–13 each–of experience on the professional circuit. Richard Gasquet, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, and Victor Estrella Burgos triumphed on Sunday and all three of them turned pro back in 2002.

Gasquet got a free pass from Jerzy Janowicz at the Open Sud de France, where an ill Pole lost all 14 points in the match and retired while trailing 3-0.

“I knew he was sick when we were warming up,” Gasquet said of his opponent. “I saw very quickly at the beginning of the match that he couldn’t play at all. Anything can happen, so even though I knew he was sick, I stayed focused. I had a great week, with solid matches.”

Gasquet-Janowicz “highlights”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqE9KexjP6g]

Garcia-Lopez beat Andreas Seppi 7-6(4), 6-3 at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors for his fourth ATP winner’s trophy.

“You don’t win a tournament every week,” assured Garcia-Lopez, who now has four ATP titles in his career. “It was an emotional moment. I was thinking about those moments when you are working hard, practicing a lot, spending a lot of hours on court. Every title is of course a really good moment for players, so this one is a nice one, for sure.”

GGL-Seppi highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_eu_Xtbozk]

At 34 years old, Estrella Burgos became the oldest first-time ATP Tour title winner when he outlasted Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(5) at the Ecuador Open.

“The truth is that Quito has become a very special city for me,” the current world No. 52 commented. “It actually already was, as I’ve won Challengers here. Today has been a very tough day for me where I was a set up, and later I lost the (second-set) tiebreak. In the third set I was up a break and I didn’t manage the nerves well. I got a little bit nervous, but thanks to God I relaxed a bit in the tiebreak and I was able to win the match.”

Estrella Burgos-Lopez highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MllgMOLIdus]

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