Tennis: Muster is pounded in Portugal

ALBERTO BERASATEGUI , of Spain, came back from a set down to beat Thomas Muster in the final of the Estoril Open in Portugal yesterday. The tournament traditionally opens the European clay-court season.

Muster, playing on his favourite surface and the winner of the Estoril Open in 1995 and 1996, opened strongly but Berasategui found his rhythm in the second set and defeated the Austrian 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Berasategui, ranked No 18 in the world and the third seed for this tournament, had the physical edge over the world No 30 and tournament sixth seed, overpowering the 31-year-old in just one hour and 28 minutes. The aggressive forehand play and swift moves to the net that had enabled the 25-year- old Spaniard to drop only three sets throughout the tournament, served him well in the final for which he collects a $84,000 (pounds 50,000) prize.

In Madras, Patrick Rafter cruised through the final of the Gold Flake Indian Open, beating the defending champion, Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden, 6-3, 6-4.

Rafter, top seed for the tournament and ranked fourth on the ATP tour, needed just 72 minutes against Tillstrom, who is ranked 88th and was seeded fifth, to win the final.

The Australian, who was appearing in his first final since the Grand Slam Cup in Munich last year, had early breaks in both sets and did not have a single double-fault throughout the match. In contrast, Tillstrom, who has not reached any final except this one last year, double faulted six times. The Swede was in trouble in his very first service game. He made three unforced errors and double faulted to give the Australian a break. But he broke back in game three to restore parity.

Rafter, the US Open champion who has a 13-5 record on hard courts this year, broke Tillstrom again in game six, attacking the Swede's shallow second serve. He took the first set in just 31 minutes.

Tillstrom had his only chance in the fourth game of the second set as he broke Rafter with a brilliant topspin lob to the edge of the baseline. The Swede then slumped however, allowing a 4-1 lead to slip away.

Rafter is the top seed for the Japan Open which starts on the outdoor hard courts of Tokyo today and shares the top half of the draw with Tim Henman.

The second-seed, Michael Chang, will be seeking to shrug off the disappointment of being bundled out in the first round of the Hong Kong Open on Tuesday. The American, playing in his first event since injuring his knee last month, has seen his best world ranking of two plummet to below 10 this season.

The Hong Kong tournament went to Kenneth Carlsen, who became the first Dane to win a singles title in ATP Tour history with a 6-2 6-0 victory over Zimbabwe's Byron Black. Carlsen had been beaten in three singles finals during a six-year professional career.