MADRID, June 7, 2015

Five out of five. All ITF Future champions at Rozas Club in Madrid have come from other countries than Spain, as this year’s winner Frenchman Maxime Chazal from Aix-en-Provence.

The 22-year-old departed in Las Rozas as second seed and world number 346 and he ended up being the fifth international tournament champion after previous victories of Phillips Morgan (UK), Rhyne Williams (USA), Richard Becker (Germany) and Christian Garin (Chile). Chazal saved set point at 4-5 and 30-40 in the final against Albert Alcaraz from Alicante, to finish the first set in the tie-break 7-4. The Spaniard started the second set with a break, but lost his service again. At 1-2 down, Alcaraz asked for the trainer and received some medical treatment but still couldn’t find his rhythm and even received a warning for racket abuse. From here, Chazal continued to show his great play and closed his triumph with 6-4 in the second part and received 18 ATP ranking points.

Maxime Chazal

The winner was happy after claiming his fifth ITF Future title: “This has been a good tournament, with courts in very good condition and a good hotel. I do not favor the altitude of Madrid, because I prefer to play at sea level, but it has been very good. I’m very happy to win, but it was a tough match, because Albert is a great player, has done a great week in this tournament and I was worried that he could win. Now I’ll be back home for one week, and then continue playing Futures in Romania on clay, which is my favorite surface,” Chazal told.

Albert Alcaraz Ivorra

“I think I played pretty well all week. I like to play in Madrid, because the balls bounce high and do damage to opponents. Chazal played very well and has a lot of confidence, I could not overcome or win. From here I’m off to Bulgaria to play two Futures on clay and we will see how it goes,” Alcaraz said afterwards.