Ljubicic wins Grand Prix of Tennis

LYON, France, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia rolled to a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco Sunday to win the Grand Prix of Tennis.

Ljubicic gained confidence from his first-round upset of top seed Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and his semifinal conquest of third seed Marat Safin of Russia. Sunday's win was worth $109,000.

"I'm so happy about winning my first title," Ljubicic said. "All the hard work finally paid off. A lot of things happened for the first time this week. I beat the No. 1 player (in the world), Kuerten, and I won my first tournament."

Holding serve with the help of eight aces, Ljubicic broke El Aynaoui's in the fourth game of the opening set and twice in the second to cruise to victory in his first career ATP final appearance.

"I saw that his backhand return wasn't that good, so I took advantage of that," Ljubicic said. "I also mixed up the game, staying back and coming to the net. The fact that I've played a lot these past two weeks probably helped."

Since losing to Safin in the second round at the U.S. Open, Ljubicic won a Davis Cup singles match and recorded five victories to capture last week's challenger event in Grenoble, France.

El Aynaoui's ATP winning streak ended at nine matches. He claimed his lone title of the season and the second of his career last month at the Gelsor Open claycourt event in Bucharest.