Go to Bucharest and then you will never lose the sense of winning your 1st title in career.

At the beginning was the spaniard Juan Balcells the one who won his first ATP title in career, at Open Romania 2000. He fended off two match points in final set against the german Markus Hantschk before winning tie-break. Since then, Romania became a kind of “Promised Earth”, where to come and taste the flavour of grabbing the first or the second ATP trophy in career. It breaks down like this: in 2001 El Aynaoui (his 2nd win); in 2002 Ferrer (his 1st win); in 2003 David Sanchez (his 2nd win); 2004 Acasuso (his 2nd win); in 2005 Serra (his 1st win); in 2006 Melzer (his 1st win). That’s why an up and coming player shouldn’t miss this tournament. I'll give you an example of Bucharest positive impact: the 2006 defending champion Florent Serra won in Bucharest last year in September and afterwards won in Adelaide his 2nd career title less than three months later. This year was Jurgen Melzer’s turn to be placed on such a “blessed list”. Just joking! Actually...maybe half joking, ‘cause I love BCR Open Romania and we always had enjoyed great tennis out there, during his 11 years time of existence.
As Italian, I'm just a bit disappointed by the scores, ‘because I cheered for “Filo” Volandri. I must say I believed he would have won this one. I’m still sure Filo has the game to overcome Jurgen. He was nearly perfect in the 2 matches against Moya e and Serra, I dunno why used the wrong tactics against Jurgen. Specially during the first set he tried to outpower his opponent, probably just because he felt not to be
able to win the long rallies or dictate points. You know Jurgen is a lefty with a strong serve (what a 2nd serve, guyz) and a freaking dropshot, with which can get people out of their rhythm. Therefore, Filo decided (so badly) to shorten the rallies and go for winners, instead of keep on building up patiently the points with his dazzling cross-court backhand and closing them with awesome down-the-line winners. In the end won the player who deserved to win. Jurgen served too good, so it was almost impossible for Filo to break him.

Just a strange flashback: this match reminded me (in terms of scoreboard) the Open Romania 1997 final, when the Aussie Richard Fromberg beat Andrea Gaudenzi (another italian, it’s runner-up destiny) straight sets 6-1 7-6.
Anyways, Volandri, after a forgettable US hard court swing, had a pretty good tournament overall, even not being able to improve his pathetic record in finals (1-6)!