The 22-year-old Zizou Bergs (ATP-186) was still at work on Tuesday night at the European Open in Antwerp. He then bowed his head to South African Lloyd Harris, Xavier Malisse’s doubles partner.
While enjoying a meal on Thursday afternoon, Bergs suddenly received a phone call from Dubai.
It was the organizer of the Tie Break Tens, a lucrative one-day tournament. He asked if Bergs could be in Dubai a day later to participate in the tournament at the last minute.
Bergs packed his bags, rushed to the airport and arrived in Dubai at night.
Despite only 4 hours of sleep, Bergs successively defeated Dustin Brown, Gael Monfils and Taylor Fritz (in the final) in Dubai. The matches were not played to sets, but to points in a super tiebreak up to 10 points.
Thanks to that final victory, Bergs cashed a check for 130,000 euros. In one day he doubled all the prize money he had already earned in his career.
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