POPRAD TATRY, June 18, 2016

Horacio Zeballos is the champion of the €42,500 Poprad Tatry Challenger Tour, winning Saturday’s final against Gerald Melzer 6-3, 6-4.

The second seed from Argentina hit nine aces, winning 83% of his first service points. Zeballos converted three of his eight break point chances to secure victory in one hour and 43 minutes. The 31-year-old captured his 14th Challenger title, his first since lifting the trophy in Quito 2014.

Zeballos takes away €6,150 in prize money as well as 90 ATP ranking points.

“My service was key today and I served very well in the important moments, especially at the end of the match. When I felt a bit nervous, my serve helped me a lot, giving me a lot of confidence,” Zeballos told afterwards and enjoyed his stay in Poprad.

“I played a good match, not only today but the entire week. I have been spending a nice time here with friendly people in the club.”

Zeballos arrived in Slovakia after he had played the first round of the ATP 250 grass court event in s’Hertogenbosch and will return to the green in Nottingham next week.

“I entered the main draw in s’Hertogenbosch at the very last minute, so I decided to go there but it was actually not on my schedule,” the Argentine explained his one week of clay court tennis within the grass court season. Now he is going to prepare for Wimbledon but is also looking forward to see his only two months old daughter again.

“At the moment the mother is more important than me but it’s beautiful. It’s an unbelievable feeling. They will come here to Europe and we will spend some time together.”

Earlier the day, Ariel Behar and Andrey Golubev clinched the doubles title with a 6-2, 5-7, 10-5 win over Lukas Dlouhy and Andrej Martin in one hour and 18 minutes.