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February 24, 2002
Escude Victorious Again in Rotterdam

==The Frenchman captures his second consecutive title at the ABN AMRO
World Tennis Tournament.==

France's Nicolas Escude won his second consecutive title at the ABN
AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, surging past Tim Henman
3-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 in the final.

He now becomes only the third player to win this event two years in a
row. (Arthur Ashe won it in 1975 and 1976 and Stefan Edberg claimed the
title in 1987 and 1988.) "I'm very happy," said Escude, who as a qualifier
captured the Rotterdam title last year. "I was very tired today, but I
just tried my best and played my game too see what would happen.

"After winning the tie-break it was easier for me. I tried to break him
early in the third set and I did."

Escude was 5-1 up in the second set, but Henman rallied back to 5-5. In
the tie-break Henman was two points away from victory at 6-6 and 7-7, but
couldn't close out the win. "It's a question of winning the important
points," Henman said. "Nicolas seems to play much better when he is behind.
He was a bit more attacking from the baseline. I don't think I returned his
second serve particularly well."

The Brit has now lost in the Rotterdam final for the third time. (He lost
to Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1999 and to Cedric Pioline in 2000.) "It's not a
pleasant statistic, but it shows I have always played good tennis here,"
he said. "I'd love to win this tournament one time.

Henman was aiming for his second title of the year. (He defeated Philippoussis
in Adelaide earlier this year), while this is Escude's first trophy of 2002
and third career singles victory. Overall, he's had a brilliant run this week,
ousting No. 1 seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tommy Robredo, Roger Federer and
countryman Sebastien Grosjean. In his semifinal match against Grosjean,
Escude saved three match points.