With 18-year-old Roddick and 20-year-old Malisse, it was the youngest ATP singles final this season and the youngest title match in the tournament's ATP history since 1992.

Andy Roddick is the first American teenager to capture an ATP title since Michael Chang won in San Francisco on February 9, 1992, aged 19 years and 11 months. This year, Roddick won the doubles titles at Delray Beach (w/Gambill) and the Bermuda Challenger (w/Goldstein).

Roddick entered the final after taking Raemon Sluiter, second seed Todd Martin, Fernando Meligeni and 1999 champion Stefan Koubek in the previous rounds.

Malisse defeated Andre Sa, fourth seed Rainer Schuettler, fifth seed and defending champion Andrew Ilie and Jerome Golmard on the way to his first ATP final. He was a runner-up at Delray Beach, losing to American Jan-Michael Gambill. This week, he was working with former Tim Henman coach David Felgate for the first time.

Both players met once before on the court at the Knoxville/Tennessee Challenger in November 2000 with Malisse retiring with a leg injury.

In the doubles, fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India defeated top seeds Rick Leach (USA) and David MacPherson (Australia) 6-3, 7-6(7).

Leach won the doubles title at Barcelona last year (w/E.Ferreira) and MacPherson in 1992 (w/DeVries). Bhupathi and Paes played at Barcelona for the first time and won their first title of the season.