SERBIAN Laslo Djere reigned supreme in a tight battle with wildcard Italian Marco Cecchinato, defeating the hometown hope 7-6 7-5 in an excellent battle which went down to the wire in over two hours on court at the ATP 250 tournament in Sardinia, Italy.

While Cecchinato was more clinical on the first serve winning 69 per cent of his first serve points compared to Djere’s 60 per cent, Djere was more consistent at the same effectiveness on his second serve. The Serbian made the most of Cecchinato’s inefficient second serve of just 33 per cent, winning 16 of 24 points compared to the Italian’s eight, also saving eight of his 11 break points.

“It was a very tough match,” Djere said. “I had to invest a lot of effort and strength… This match really took a lot out of me but I am happy that I pushed through it and was able to finish the match and win it at the end.”

Both clay court specialists, Djere seemed to have the upper hand in the second set leading 3-0 before Cecchinato came back from the brink to force scores level, with patches of momentum going the way of each player. While Djere outlasted the 28-year-old Italian wildcard, Cecchinato was positive despite the loss, jumping back into the top 100, now sitting 77th on the world rankings.

“When you lose a final it is a tough moment, but I leave here with so many positive things because now I am coming back to the Top 100,” said Cecchinato. “I am very happy for this… I stayed very focused on my game during the match from the first to the last point. There are so many positive things from the past few weeks.”

Djere jumps from 74th to 53rd on the world rankings with this victory, and is the third Serbian to collect a tour level title victory this year following Novak Djokovic and Miomir Kecmanovic.