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Caps alternate Wesley Moodie wins first title

October 29, 2005 - World TeamTennis (WTT)
Sacramento Capitals News Release


Wesley Moodie saved match points, fighting off two in the second set tie-break to claim his first career title with a 1-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 win over No. 5 Mario Ancic last month in the final of the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships.

Moodie's serve failed him early in the match as the South African was broken in his first two service games to allowed Ancic to march out to a 5-0 lead and win the opening set in just 24 minutes.

Moodie fought off three break points in the third game of the second set, but was then broken in the fifth game. The Croat immediately gave the break back. In the tie-break, Moodie got an early mini-break, but it was Ancic who pulled ahead. Moodie faced his first match point while serving at 5-6. With Moodie stranded at the net, Ancic's lob fell agonizingly over the baseline. The Croatian had another match point on his own serve at 7-6 only to see Moodie produce a running forehand pass from a seemingly impossible angle to save it and go on to force a decider.

In the third set, Moodie held off two break points in the fourth game, and then went ahead for good by breaking Ancic in the ninth game.

"I felt I was going to get beat when I was down a set and a break," said Moodie. "But somehow I got into a third set, and picked up my standard of tennis."

With the win, the 26-year-old Moodie joins Ancic as one of eight first-time ATP title winners this year: Xavier Malisse (Delray Beach), Wayne Arthurs (Scottsdale), Igor Andreev (Valencia), Richard Gasquet (Nottingham), Ancic (s'Hertogenbosch), Gael Monfils (Sopot) and Florent Serra (Bucharest).

Moodie is the first South African to win the AIG Japan Open, and the first South African to win an ATP title since Wayne Ferreira won Los Angeles in 2003.

Moodie's best result of 2005 came in doubles, where he teamed with Australian Stephen Huss to become the first qualifying team to the title at Wimbledon. That title gives the team a good chance of qualifying for the Tennis Masters Cup doubles tournament in Shanghai.

courtesy of ATP Tour

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