Sunday, 25 February, 2001, 18:21 GMT
Escude enjoys Dutch payday
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/1189469.stm
Frenchman Nicolas Escude has won a hard-fought tie-break
to defeat the Swiss teenager Roger Federer in the Rotterdam
World Indoor final.

Escude had to recover from a break down in the final set, to
take the title 7-5 3-6 7-6, winning the tie-break 7-5.

Both players were unseeded but the 19 year-old in-form Federer
was a favourite to win after his victory in Milan two weeks ago.

This was Escude's second ATP title, and his first on foreign
soil.

Escude claimed he only entered the qualifying event for some
match practice, but it has earned him his biggest-ever prize
of $139,000 (?5,500).

"I came here with no pressure so maybe that's why I played like
that," Escude said.

"After I won my match in qualifying I thought to myself, 'you can
win this tournament, why not?'"

A competitive match see-sawed back and forth with both the first
two sets decided by two breaks of serve to one.

All the breaks were hard-earned, as when Federer needed four break
points to take a decisive 4-2 lead in the second set.

In the final-set tie-break, Federer made three unforced errors to
hand Escude a string of four match points.

Federer saved the first three but then thumped a simple forehand
wildly out on the fourth.

In spite of the narrow defeat, Federer's fine start to the season
has continued, with Rotterdam being his fourth ATP final.

He looked tired against Escude after playing six sets of singles
and doubles on Saturday.

Escude's victory will boost his chances of making the French Davis
Cup team to play Switzerland in April.

History repeated itself in the final as last year Frenchman Cedric
Pioline beat Briton Tim Henman in a final-set tie-break.