Hamburg glory for Golubev

Andrey Golubev beat Jurgen Melzer in Hamburg to become the first Kazakh to win on the ATP Tour.

Kazakh makes history with Melzer triumph

Andrey Golubev became the first player from Kazakhstan to win an ATP World Tour title after defeating Jurgen Melzer in straight sets to claim the German Open crown. Melzer had not dropped a set all tournament and, in the form of his career, was favourite to claim a third career title against an opponent who is 67 places above him in the rankings. However, the world number 15 had no answer as Golubev, who had beaten top seed Nikolay Davydenko en route to the final, cruised to a 6-3 7-5 victory in one and a half hours. The 23-year-old broke Melzer in the eighth game of the first set and, after the Austrian had missed a crucial chance to break back at 3-2 up in the second, Golubev broke again in the 11th game before serving out for the match in only his second ever final. Golubev will now break into the top 50 for the first time in his career on Monday.