Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean showed that he could be a dark horse at Wimbledon next week as he won the Nottingham Open this afternoon in straight sets. The 22-year-old beat Zimbabwe's Byron Black in straight sets to claim his first ATP Tour title and a cheque for £33,000. Grosjean, the only seed left in since the quarter-finals, saw off a tough challenge from the Zimbabwean and Nottingham's weather which often threatened to halt proceedings. A light shower did hold up the match in the fourth game of the first set as the Frenchman was opening up a 3-1 lead after breaking Black in the first game.
Black soon found his rhythm and forced his way back into the match, breaking Grosjean in the sixth game and forcing a set point with Grosjean serving at 5-6. Grosjean held on and came out on top 9-7 in the tie-break. The Frenchman never seemed happy with the damp surface, often complaining to the umpire. And when Black broke to go 2-1 up in the second it seemed ominous. But neither player was able to hold serve and three successive breaks followed before Grosjean took the initiative and raced to a 7-6, 6-3 victory.
Meanwhile, Martina Hingis won the easiest of titles this afternoon, playing only two full matches en route to lifting the Den Bosch Trophy after Romania's Ruxandra Dragomir retired from the final. The world number one took the first 6-2 and was leading 3-0 in the second when Dragomir, the eighth seed, quit the match due to a toe injury. Hingis, 19, was privileged to a first-round bye, won her next match in just 36 minutes and received a quarter-final walkover when Cara Black withdrew from the tournament with the flu. The Swiss player's toughest assignment was against fourth seed Jennifer Capriati, whom she beat 7-5 6-2 in the semifinals. Dragomir, winner of the 1997 Den Bosch title, said she did not want to aggravate the injury ahead of Wimbledon.
