LYON/STARNBERG, May 21, 2022
Cameron Norrie is the champion of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon. The top seed of the ATP 250 clay-court tournament outlasted Alex Molcan from Slovakia 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-1 in the singles final.
On a sunny Saturday in the south of France, Norrie struck six aces and won 72 per cent of his first-service points to prevail after two hours and 31 minutes.
Winning Machine 💪
The moment @cam_norrie won a fourth ATP title – and a first on clay!#OpenParc pic.twitter.com/pjmZmfv2zs
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 21, 2022
“It is my first title on the clay so it means a lot to me,” Norrie said in his on-court interview. “I can’t be happier with how I handled everything this week. This one feels the best so far. I don’t know why, it is just so special and I couldn’t be happier and am really speechless right now. It was an incredible atmosphere. Thanks to everyone for coming out.
“I had chances to close the matches in straight sets this week and get it done easier than usual and it didn’t go that way and I was able to let that go and respond. In the third set I moved really well and it is nice to get over the line.”
By winning his fourth ATP Tour career title, his second of the season following his triumph at the Delray Beach Open in February, Norrie earned €81,310 in prize money as well as 250 ATP Ranking points.
Dodig/Krajicek win doubles title
Earlier in the day, Ivan Dodig of Croatia and US-American Austin Krajicek claimed the doubles title. The top seeds defeated second favourites Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina and Brazilian Marcelo Melo 6-3, 6-4. The encounter lasted one hour and 17 minutes.
“It is great, great for me,” Dodig said. “I had a really good time with Austin, we played some good tennis. I am really happy with this title. We have worked really hard the past couple of weeks. There were some tough losses but now we are on a good track and playing well.”
Dodig and Krajicek were competing together for the fifth time, with their best result before this week a run to the title match in Winston-Salem last August.
“I thought we served really well and returned well in big points,” Krajicek added. “Ivan played great. It was a good team effort. We have put in a lot of hard work in the past couple of weeks and finally got it going our way this week.”
