TENNIS in DEPTH.

No. 4 seed Nicolas Almagro defended his Abierto Mexicano Telcel title with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 2 seed Gael Monfils in the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Acapulco on Saturday night.

The 23-year-old Spaniard is the first player to capture back-to-back tournament titles since Thomas Muster won four straight from 1993-96 in Mexico City. The tournament moved to Acapulco in 2001.

Almagro earned a career-high $300,000 and collected 500 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points with his fifth ATP World Tour clay court title in seventh final. It is the second time Almagro has defended a title. He won in Valencia in 2006-07.

Monfils, who was the first Frenchman to reach the final in tournament history (since 1993), fell to 1-6 lifetime in ATP World Tour finals. Monfils came into the tournament a career-high No. 10 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings.

Almagro evened the career meetings at 2-2 against Monfils with his second clay court victory (’06 Barcelona). The Frenchman won the previous two matches on hard courts at the Beijing Olympics last summer and at the Australian Open last month.

“I was very eager to win tonight and did what I needed to do to luckily arrive at this victory,” said Almagro. “I made few errors and I’m very satisfied with the match and the week. I think the key to the match was my serve. My mind has also been strong this week and helped me overcome my issues with my shoulder which I’ve been battling these past few weeks. This has helped me gain the self confidence I needed after six tough months of injury last year.”

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