Anderson just loses Mexican final
The South African knew he was in for a real battle, although Anderson was playing his second consecutive final (reached the final of Delray Beach last week) both he and Dimitrov were contesting their first ATP 500 final.
Anderson was going for his third (Johannesburg 2011 ; Delray Beach 2012) ATP tile whilst Dimitrov was going for title number two (Stockholm 2013).
Unlucky number three for Kevin as Dimitrov came back from a break down in the third set to beat Anderson 7-6 (1) 3-6 7-6 (5).
Dimitrov had an incredible week beating Ernests Gulbis and upsetting second seed Andy Murray en route to the final. As a result, 22 year old Dimitrov will move up from 28 to a projected 16 in the ATP rankings tomorrow (Monday).
As a consolation to Anderson it is projected that he will rise to an all-time world ranking of 17 when the new ATP ranking are released Monday.
Anderson said he was disappointed he could not lift the title but takes a lot of positives from a good weeks tennis. “I really enjoyed the week here in Acapulco. There were so many positives from the week and tennis is a difficult sport, you have some disappointing loses like today, I certainly had my chances, but I must not get down on myself, I must move on and take the positives with me.”
Anderson said that things could be much different had he played a better final set tie-breaker. “If I had won those two crucial points at 5-5 in the final set breaker it would be a different story. I tried to play aggressive from the baseline but Grigor was calm, cool and collective and played the final set breaker smart. I had my chances, Grigor had his chances and he took advantage, I didn’t. He is a worthy winner.”
But not was all lost for Anderson in Mexico. Anderson teamed up with his good friend, Matthew Ebden of Australia to win the doubles title. Anderson and Ebden, unseeded beat Feliciano Lopez (Spain) and Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 6-3 6-3 in the final.
(File photo:Gallo Images)