Ivanisevic keeps rolling

Tennis

Goran Ivanisevic, the fourth seed from Croatia, won his third title in four events when he beat the Swiss eighth seed Marc Rosset 6-3, 7-6 to win the Milan indoor tournament yesterday.

Ivanisevic, whose display of bad temper almost led to defeat against Guy Forget in Saturday's semi-final, needed only 59 minutes to add the title to the his earlier successes in Zagreb and Dubai. The only blemish on his recent record came when he was beaten by the German Michael Stich in last Sunday's European Community final in Antwerp.

"I never played as well as at the beginning of this year. Today I knew that nothing and no one could stop me from winning." Ivanisevic said.

The Croat, who has now reached the final in six of his last seven events, served 20 aces. In reply, in what had been seen as a battle of two of the biggest servers in the game, Rosset served only six and though he had only two double-faults, one of them came when he was 3-1 down in the tie-break. Each player allowed the other one point at most on their service games until the eighth game when Rosset mis-hit two easy volleys to trail 15-30.

The Swiss then hit a service winner, but the Croat got to game point and converted it with an excellent return of serve.

In the second set, Rosset had his first break point in the ninth game but Ivanisevic struck two successive aces as he took a 5-4 lead. In the tie-break Rosset was broken twice at 2-1 down beforeIvanisevic won it 7-3.