Spadea claims Challenger title

In what may go down as the first victory moonwalk dance in Challenger history, rapping tennis player Vincent Spadea made his way to the net just that way after the final point of his 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over unseeded Sam Warburg on Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz of Calabasas USTA $50,000 Pro Challenger at the Calabasas Tennis and Swim Center.

With good friend actor Jon Lovitz looking on, 34-year-old Spadea from Boca Raton, Fla., who has a home in Hollywood, won his eighth career singles Challenger to go along with his one ATP championship.

He adds $7,200 to his more than $4.8 million he's won on tour in his 15-year pro career.

"I can't tell you how special this moment is," Spadea told the crowd after the match.

"In my career I've stood here on the final day like this nine times now. Not a lot of weeks go by where everything goes right like this."

The final was tight and competitive.

The last time the topseeded Spadea met Warburg was at the Oklahoma Challenger quarterfinals earlier this year. The score was 6-2, 6-1 in favor of Spadea.

Spadea went up early in the first set 5-2 and held a set point at 5-3, but Warburg fired in an ace to stay alive and then broke again to make it 5-5, eventually forcing the tiebreaker.

Warburg got the first mini break to go up 5-3 in the breaker, but Spadea rallied off four straight points, including a huge downtheline forehand winner after a long rally to give him set point before he served out the set.

"He just had a bit more experience, was a bit more steady and a bit more seasoned," said Warburg, who claimed $4,240.

Somdev Devvarman and Nathan Healey looked unbeatable in their first set against No. 2 seeds Ilia Bozoljac and Dusan Vemic of Serbia in the doubles final with a 6-1 win, but Bozoljac and Vemic came back, winning the second 63 and then the super tiebreaker 1311 for the $3,100 first-place prize.