Tursunov wins title at Open de Moselle in France

Fifth-seeded Russian and World No. 32 Dmitry Tursunov (pictured) was victorious this afternoon against fourth-seeded French star Paul-Henri Mathieu, 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-4, to win the title at the Open de Moselle in Metz, France. The title was the California based Russians second title of the year and fifth overall career title.

After serving for the first set at 6-5, Tursunov was able to remain focused enough to pull out the first set in a tiebreak. In the second set, he became extremely sloppy and had a lot of unforced errors, as the Frenchman broke serve on three occasions during that set. In the fifth game of the final set, the 25-year-old was able to break serve to go up 3-2 and eventually closed out the match 6-4, to win in just under two and a half hours.

"In the second set he had a lot of chances to attack my second serve and he was successful in doing that," said Tursunov. "As I was two breaks down, Paul-Henri was playing with a lot of confidence. Today there wasn't a big difference. I can't say that I was better than him. He could have broken me as well in the third set."

Tursunov improves to 33-19 on the season, including a 25-12 on hard courts. The Moscow born star becomes the first Russian to ever win the Open de Moselle in its six years of existence.

Currently ranked No. 24 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Mathieu was looking to win his fifth career title and his first since winning the Gstaad title in 2007.

"I couldn't do much in the final set," said Mathieu. "He broke me and I couldn't break him which cost me the match. It's tough to lose a match like that. I think that I have to improve two or three things. It's still a good week for me. I hope that I'll win a tournament soon."

Had Mathieu won today’s championship match, he would have joined Gilles Simon, Michael Llodra, Fabrice Santoro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the fifth ATP singles title winner from France. After today’s heartbreaking loss, Mathieu drops to 29-24 on the season.