CANBERRA, January 16, 2016

Top seed Paolo Lorenzi has won the $75,000 Canberra ATP Challenger event after a straight sets victory over fifth seed Ivan Dodig.

Lorenzi was backing up from Friday’s three hour marathon against Spaniard Marcel Granollers, while Dodig was just to drop a set all tournament and had already defeated the second and third seeds on route to the final.

Dodig got out to a great start holding his serve and then breaking Lorenzi to take a 2-0 lead. The match then turned quickly as Lorenzi broke back and claimed the next five games to take the set 6-2.

Lorenzi raced out to a 5-1 lead in the second after a run which saw him win eleven of the previous 12 games. Dodig fought back to take the next three games and put the pressure back on Lorenzi to serve it out. Lorenzi made no mistake the second time round, holding serve to close out the match in 79 minutes.

By lifting his 17th ATP Challenger trophy, the 34-year-old Italian takes away $10,800 in prize money as well as 90 ATP ranking points.

Both players will now head to Melbourne to prepare for the Australian Open 2016. Lorenzi has the tough task of taking on the in-form Grigor Dimitrov, while Dodig faces a possible second round match up with Novak Djokovic if he can get past wildcard Quentin Halys, who also played in Canberra.

Pro tour action will return to the Canberra Tennis Centre in March when the venue will host back-to back women’s events.