Tennis: Wawrinka tops Zverev to retain Geneva Open title

Swiss top seed Stan Wawrinka successfully defended his Geneva Open tennis title with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Germany's Mischa Zverev.

The 32-year-old world No.3 was on Saturday broken twice in the opening set but cleaned up his service games after that, reports Efe.

The Swiss star put Zverev under constant pressure with his return game, creating a whopping 18 break points in the match and converting five of them to take the match -- and clinch this clay-court title -- in two hours and 20 minutes.

The title is the 16th of Wawrinka's career and serves as a confidence-booster heading into tennis' premier clay-court event, the French Open, which gets under way on Sunday.

The Swiss, who defeated Croatia's Marin Cilic to win last year's Geneva Open title, won his second of three Grand Slam titles at the 2015 French Open.

"The level was great today, I think it was a great final," Wawrinka was quoted as saying on the ATP World Tour's Web site.

"Mischa was playing very well and maybe I was hesitating a bit in the beginning. I'm happy that I came back strongly in the second set and managed to turn the match around."

Despite the loss, the net-rushing Zverev said he was pleased with his performance on tennis' slowest surface.

"It was a great week for me here in Geneva," the 29-year-old German said.

"Playing on clay is usually not easy for me, but I really felt great here playing six matches this week and reaching my first semi-final and final on this surface. Congratulations to Stan for a good week and a great match today."

--IANS

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