TENNIS in DEPTH.

Albert Montanes won his second ATP World Tour title of the season after edging third seed Juan Monaco 7-6(2), 7-6(6) Sunday in the final of the BCR Open Romania, an ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tennis tournament in Bucharest.

Montanes is the third Spanish played this season, together with Rafael Nadal (five titles) and Tommy Robredo (two titles), to win at least two ATP World Tour titles. He received 250 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points and €71,700, while runner-up Monaco earned 150 Ranking points and €37,700 in prize money.

Barcelona-resident Montanes is the first Spaniard to win the BCR Open Romania title since David Sanchez lifted the trophy in 2003. Montanes himself had nearly claimed the title two years earlier, when he finished runner-up to Younes El Aynaoui on his tournament debut.

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Tomas Berdych claimed his first title of the 2009 season with a final-set tie-break defeat of Mikhail Youzhny at the BMW Open in Munich.

The Czech fourth seed won the opening set before the unseeded Russian hit back to win the second and take the decider all the way.

But Berdych held his nerve to clinch a 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7/5) success in two hours and 34 minutes.

Albert Montanes saved two match points to beat fourth seed James Blake and seal the Estoril Open title.

The seventh-seeded Spaniard lost the first set but stormed back to claim a 5-7 7-6 (8/6) 6-0.

Blake had earlier been forced to play the majority of his semi-final against second seed and former champion Nikolay Davydenko, which was put back on Saturday because of rain.

The American battled back from a set down to come through 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (7/2) 6-3.

And he perhaps felt the effects of his workout as he ran out of gas against Montanes, who had a much simpler outing yesterday, beating Chile’s Paul Capdeville 6-3 6-4.

The Spanish veteran appeared to be on his way out of the tournament when, at 5-4 down in the second, he faced two break points.

But he saved them and ran through the third set to claim his second tour title.

Home favourite Novak Djokovic won the inaugural Serbia Open with a straight-sets victory over surprise finalist Lukasz Kolbat in Belgrade.

World number three Djokovic was playing in his fifth ATP final of the season and could have been forgiven for expecting an easy ride against Pole Kolbat, ranked 179 and making his first ATP final appearance after a shock semi-final victory over Ivo Karlovic.

And so it appeared during the first set, the Serb breaking his opponent almost immediately on the way to a comfortable 6-3 triumph.

But Kubat then gave Djokovic a dose of his own medicine by breaking him early in the second to open up a 3-0 lead and the top seed had to fight back to take it to a tie-breaker.

Djokovic demonstrated his class from thereon though, cruising to victory in the tie-break without dropping a point to wrap up the match and become the first Serbia Open champion.

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