Aljaz Bedene wins first title as British player
Sunday 10 May 2015 16:06, UK
Aljaz Bedene has won his first title as British player with a 7-5 6-2 victory over Adam Pavlasek at the Challenger Tour's Rome Open.
The 25-year-old formerly represented Slovenia but switched allegiances in March 2015 having resided in Britian since 2008.
Bedene broke the Czech Republic's Pavlasek in the 11th game of the opening set before holding serve to close it out 7-5.
Then the top seed then upped the tempo to finish the match with a well-executed second set.
This is Bedene tenth career title on the Challenger tour and second of the year after winning in Irving earlier in 2015.
Bedene reached his first ATP Tour final in Chennai in Janaury and after beating three of the world's top 30 - Feliciano Lopez, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Roberto Bautista Agut - he was eventually downed by Stan Wawrinka.
The world No 89 is in the process of appealing the rule that is preventing him from playing for Great Britain in the Davis Cup. Bedene, who is now the British No 2 behind Andy Murray, represented Slovenia earlier on in his career.
