Behroozian adds another title to his kitty

The UAE's Omar Behroozian walked away with the men's open title at the Marbella Ramadan tennis championships in Sharjah on Sunday.

Behroozian was stretched all the way before escaping with a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) win against Tunisian Davis Cupper, Essam Jalali.

Scheduled to lead the UAE men's team at the GCC Men's Individual Tennis Championships in Kuwait later this week, Behroozian admitted to a certain "distraction".

"I have not been focused as I am already gearing up for the tournament," Behroozian said of his error-ridden final against his Tunisian opponent.

However, the UAE's top player made a sound start snatching an early break for a 3-1 lead.

After that, he simply failed to find the rhythm as both broke each other once to stay level at 5-5. Jalali broke Behroozian a second time for a 6-5 lead, but the UAE lad did enough to draw level with a break of his own and push the set into the tie-breaker, which he won.

In the second set as well, Behroozian held an edge as he moved clear 2-1.

And just when one thought he would consolidate his lost his serve a couple of times to hand Jalali a 5-3 cushion. Down 15-40 on his own serve, Behroozian fought back to hold serve and then break Jalali afresh to come to level terms at 5-5 once again.

He took the lead with another break, only to surrender his serve meekly on love to decide the result on the tie-breaker once again.

"I think what made the difference is that he's a smart player," Behroozian said of his opponent after their first-ever meeting here.

Winners

Men's Doubles: (Winner) Stephan Muller and Ryan Addison; (Runners-up) Attia Mahmoud and Ajaya Kumar. Boys U-16: (Winner) Hamad Abbas Al Dahnani; (Runner-up) Faisal Bastaki. Girls U-16: (Winner) Jennifer Smith; (Runner-up) Emily Leenen. Boys U-14: (Winner) Kaushik Murli; (Runner-up) Anirudh Bahl. Boys U-12: (Winner) Kaushik Murli; (Runner-up) Shokhrak Ergeshev. Boys U-10: (Winner) Majid Obaid; (Runner-up) Rami Ahmad Anwar Khalaf.