Estoril (Portugal), May 10 (Inditop) Rain wrecked the play at the Estoril Open Saturday, with the semi-final match between American James Blake and Nikolay Davydenko had to be suspended due to darkness.
The American who has never gone this far on European clay will be back Sunday to try and finish the job, then get a short recovery before tackling Spain’s seventh seed Alberto Montanes, who managed a win over Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-3, 6-4.
Blake lost the first set 6-7 (3-7) but was powering back after a 4-2 lead in the second against the former champion and last year’s finalist Davydenko, when darkness finally forced the match off court.
The afternoon contest was originally delayed by bad weather and then interrupted after just four games.
The women’s final was able to be completed before conditions worsened, with Belgian Yanina Wickmayer upsetting Russian sixth seed Ekaterina Makarova 7-5, 6-2.
“I’m really happy to have won my first WTA Tour title, I’ve worked hard for it,” said the new champion. “I don’t really have many words to describe the feeling – I’m nearly speechless.
“I’ve been playing well for a few weeks now. I didn’t have great results, but I’ve been practising really well. I felt this coming – not that I was going to win a title – but that I was playing well. I beat some good players this week, so I’m very happy.”
Wickmayer becomes Belgium’s first singles titlist since Justine Henin at Antwerp last February while also the lowest-ranked singles trophy holder so far this year.
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