SEEFELD, July 4, 2015

The second of two consecutive US-$ 10,000 ITF Future tournaments in Seefeld ended on a very hot Saturday with the second career title for Andrea Basso. The seventh-seeded Italian defeated second favourite Dmitry Popko in the final, winning 6-2, 4-6, 6-4

Basso had the better start, seemed to be very solid from the baseline, withstood seven aces and capitalized on five of his eight break point chances, the decisive one in the ninth game of the third set. In the following, the Italian leftie served the match out after two hours and 15 minutes.

Dmitry Popko during the final

Andrea Basso played his fourth career final

“I am pretty disappointed, as I thought I had the match under control. I just made easy mistakes in the end. That was it,” Popko told afterwards. The 18-year-old Kazakh has already been a break up in the third set but couldn’t confirm in the following. He also received some treatment during the changeover. “I felt a bit of pain, which disturbed me while playing. That’s why I called the trainer, just to be safe. But it wasn’t that serious in the end,” Popko explained and told about his goals and his further schedule.

“I would like to break into the top 300 by the end of the season but now I have to go to Australia for the Davis Cup. After that I will go to my home country playing some Challengers, where I received wild cards. Then I will come back to Austria,” told the St. Petersburg native, who practices in Vienna and is coached by former Austria’s Davis Cup captain Gilbert Schaller.

Seefeld’s second week’s finalists: Andrea Basso and Dmitry Popko

Andrea Basso claimed his second ITF Future title

Seefeld’s second champion for this season was understandably happy, taking away 18 ATP ranking points  and 1,440 US-$ prize money. Tennis TourTalk spoke to Andrea Basso:

The ITF Future Circuit will continue in Austria with further tournaments taking place in Telfs, Kramsach and Bad Waltersdorf this month.