Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand on Sunday night elevated his game to win his third ATP tour title thrashing Karol Kucera of Slovakia 6-3 6-1 in 69 minutes in the Tata Open singles final in Chennai.
Second seed Paradorn, whose career took an upward swing ever since he finished as the losing finalist in Chennai last year, was right on course for the title from the beginning of the match.
Paradorn did not drop a single set en route to the final where his fine victory capped a superb run for the Thai.
With his third title win inside five months -- the Stockholm and Long Island Opens besides the Asian Games gold -- Paradorn has emerged as a force to reckon with in world tennis.
The Thai collected $54,000 and the glittering Tata Open Trophy while Kucera took away $31,500.
Expressing pride at winning an ATP tour title in the Asian continent, the Thai star said, "Last year, I had a good run of victories after my final appearance here. I did not expect to do this well in this tournament, but now am happy to have started the current season with a tour title and look forward to break into the higher ranks."
Kucera gave full credit to Paradorn for his game today and said, "Perhaps. I will win the final next year."
The 23-year-old Paradorn, ranked 16th and six years younger to Kucera (83rd), worked his way according to his game plan of playing about four feet away from the baseline and apart from returning perfectly, he was able to deceive Kucera on quite a few occasions.
Paradorn, who has been on a high having scalped at least six of the former world number ones, including Leyton Hewitt, the current champion, was tipped to score an easy win but Kucera was not overawed by the situation and did not yield to the pressure.
Julian Knowle of Austria and Michael Kholmann of Germany stunned the fourth seeded Czech combine of Frantisek Cermak and Leos Friedl 7-6 (7/1) 7-6 (7/3) to lift the doubles title in the Tata Indian Open tennis championship.
The keenly-contested match saw booming serves and brilliant winners with the two pairs reserving their best for the tie-break in both the sets after 22 of the 24 games went on serve.
In both the tie-breaks, the lower ranked Austrian-German pair played better and looked under no pressure.
The winners became richer by $26,550 while the Czech pair collected $15,630.
