By Erik Gudris / Saturday, January 11, 2014

 

Juan Martin Del Potro proved too much for defending champion Bernard Tomic as the Argentine claimed the Apia International title in Sydney.

Photo Credit: AP

Top seed Juan Martin Del Potro kicked off his 2014 season by winning his 18th career ATP title at the Apia International in Sydney.

While defending champion Bernard Tomic of Australia had the home crowd support during Saturday's final, it was not enough to stop the powerful game of Del Potro, who played his best match of the week.

Never facing a break point against him during the entire match, Del Potro served eight aces and broke the Australian four times.

After 53 minutes, it was over. Del Potro became the champion of Sydney with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-1 victory. The winner's trophy was presented to Del Potro by Australian tennis great Ken Rosewall.

"The finals never are easy, but I was surprised of my level tonight," Del Potro said to ATP.com. "I think I played great. My forehand worked perfectly; I made a lot winners; many aces; I played good slices."

"Tonight showed why he's that quality of a player," Tomic said about the loss. "So there was nothing I could have done. I tried to keep up, but he kept playing the way he was playing. I haven't seen a guy play a second set like that. It was too good."

Both men enter next week's Australian Open finding themselves in the same section of the draw as world No. 1 Rafael Nadal. While Del Potro could face Nadal in a projected quarterfinal meeting, Tomic will face the Spaniard in the opening round.

The doubles title was won by Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic.