RIO DE JANEIRO: David Ferrer won his second tournament of the season and the 23rd ATP singles title of his career, beating Fabio Fognini on Sunday 6-2, 6-3 in the final of the Rio Open.

Ferrer has won all eight matches he has played against Fognini, including the previous one — the final on clay last year in Buenos Aires.

Ferrer of Spain was seeded No. 2 in the clay-court tournament behind countryman Rafael Nadal.

“It was my best match of the tournament and I’m very happy having won two tournaments this season,” said the 32-year-old Ferrer, who is off to the best start of his career.

Ferrer also won the Qatar Open in Doha.

Nadal lost to No. 6 Fognini in Saturday’s semifinal 1-6, 6-2, 7-5. The loss ended Nadal’s 52-match winning string in semifinals on clay. Nadal, the winner of 14 Grand Slams, has yet to reach the final in three tournaments this season.

Fognini was looking for his fourth ATP singles title.

In the women’s final, top-seeded Sara Errani of Italy defeated Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia 7-6 (2), 6-1. It was Errani’s eighth WTA singles title and her first since winning two years ago in Acapulco, Mexico.

The victory also moves Errani up to No. 12 in the WTA ranking, ever closer to returning to the top 10.

“I’m close, but that’s not my objective,” she said. “The most important thing for me is to practice well, do things right and improve. And I think when you do things the right way, other things follow.”

Errani could be back in Rio twice next year — for this tournament and the Olympics. She and partner Roberta Vinci lost to the Williams sisters in the quarterfinals of the London Olympics.

One drawback for Errani: Rio’s Olympic tennis will be on hardcourts, not clay.

“It’s a shame they won’t be on clay,” she said. “I was hoping they would be.”

Karlovic blasts Young to capture sixth title

Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic, never dropping a service game all week, defeated American Donald Young 6-3, 6-3 Sunday to win the Delray Beach Open, snapping a four-final losing streak.

Six days before his 36th birthday, Karlovic blasted 13 aces past the 25-year-old US left-hander to claim the top prize of $84,250 (73,900 euros) and his sixth career ATP crown.

Karlovic held all 55 of his service games this week, saving all 19 break points he faced — including seven from Young — to become the oldest Delray Beach champion since Jimmy Connors in 1989.

Karlovic, playing in his 13th career ATP final, took only 69 minutes to win just his second title in seven years and his first since the 2013 Colombia Open.

Fourth-seeded Karlovic, the ATP’s tallest player at 2.11m, reached four finals last year but was beaten in the championship matches at Memphis, Dusseldorf, Newport and in trying to defend his Bogota title.

Karlovic, who lost the 2010 Delray final to Latvian Ernests Gulbis, fired 90 aces this week to break the tournament record he set five years ago.

Karlovic, ranked 29th, broke Young, ranked 56th, in the seventh and final games of the opening set to seize command of the match against a foe he had never before faced.