DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 3 (UPI) -- Fabrice Santoro defeated Younes El Aynaoui 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, Sunday at the $925,000 Dubai Tennis Championships for his fourth career ATP title.
The 29-year-old Santoro, who picked up the $162,100 winner's check at this hardcourt event, collected his first trophy since January 2000, when he triumphed at the Qatar Open in Doha.
Santoro also has advanced to six career tour finals, including the inaugural Dubai event in 1993 and Doha in 1998.
Santoro and El Aynaoui went to a final set for the first time in their five career encounters. The Frenchman won their previous match at the 1999 Stuttgart Indoor event after El Aynaoui beat him earlier in the year at Doha. Santoro also outdueled El Aynaoui at the 1994 Montevideo claycourt tournament after falling to the Moroccan at Porto earlier in the season.
Santoro climbed to as high as 17th in the ATP rankings last year.
El Aynaoui reached his second final of 2002, having already won the Doha event. The Moroccan also upset reigning Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, the third seed here, on Saturday to advance to the final. He avenged his loss to Johansson in the third round of the first Grand Slam event of the year.
The 30-year-old El Aynaoui also knocked off top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round.
