Benjamin Becker nets inaugural Aegean Tennis Cup on Rhodes
Experienced German tennis player Benjamin Becker won the ATP Challenger Aegean Tennis Cup tournament on the island of Rhodes, beating his compatriot Simon Stadler in yesterday’s final. Becker, the number 7 seed of the tournament and number 126 in the world ATP rankings, beat Stadler in straight sets (7-5, 6-3) by breaking his opponent’s serve once in each set and winning all of his service games. In the doubles, Slovak Karol Beck and Czech Jaroslav Levinsky beat their American opponents Rajeev Ram and Bobby Reynolds 6-3, 6-3. The injury to Reynolds before the start of the match clearly took its toll on his game. The Greek competitors failed to reach the later stages of the tournament as they were swept away by the top-class players who came to Rhodes to participate in the event. The first version of the $125,000 tournament, one of the most important in the eastern Mediterranean, proved very successful, despite a number of teething problems which organizers have promised to rectify ahead of next year’s tournament.
