Mariano Zabaleta has set his sights on a place in the world’s top 20 after a sensational three weeks of tennis which culminated yesterday in him capturing the XL Bermuda Open title.

The tall, swarthy Argentinian — who had even actress Catherine Zeta-Jones swooning from her seat high up in the hospitality boxes above Coral Beach’s centre court — fought off the spirited challenge of Canadian number one Frank Dancevic in three sets, triumphing 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.

After more than six months out of the game following knee surgery, the former world number 21 from Buenos Aires began the season unsure as to whether his body would be able to cope with the task of climbing back to the top — with a string of bad results in January and February doing nothing to assuage the doubts.

But back on his beloved clay, this month Zabaleta reached the semi-finals of the River Oaks International, the final of the US Clay Court Championships in Houston and now is the XL Open champion — impressive form which is sure to catapult him back inside the world’s top 100 after an absence of almost a year and a half.

He was certainly made to work hard for his $14,000 pay-cheque through the week, as both the unseeded Daniel Koellerer in Thursday night’s fiery quarter-final (4-6, 6-4, 6-3) and Frenchman Nicholas Devilder in Saturday’s even more dramatic semi (3-6, 6-3, 7-6) pushed him to the absolute limit of his mental and physical endurance.

The intense battles of the earlier rounds had left Zabaleta with a painful blister on his right foot, and there were doubts on Saturday night and even early yesterday morning about whether he would be able to play the final.

And though he tried his very best to disguise the injury from both his opponent and the sell-out crowd, throughout the three sets he was walking between points with a clear limp and pulled up on a few occasions while stretching for balls at the front of the court.

The blister didn’t seem to affect his play that badly, however, as the Argentine began the match like a greyhound out of a trap — blazing away from the baseline with his trademark monster forehand and surging quickly into a 4-1 lead.

But as he would do in the following set as well, Zabaleta suddenly took his foot off the pedal with the match apparently under his control, allowing his young opponent back into contention through a succession of sloppy unforced errors.

In the first he got away with it, as Dancevic pulled the score back to 5-5 before double-faulting twice on his serve to concede a break and the set, though in the second he was made to pay as the Canadian broke his serve at 5-5 to bring the match all-square.

While there was little to choose between the duo overall on the forgiving clay surface, it was the aggressive Zabaleta who was dictating play more often than not and in the third the speedy Canadian’s lack of major weapons began to be exposed.

At 4-1 up once again, this time Zabaleta was far less tentative when in prime position to win the set, making virtually no errors, working an increasingly pressurised Dancevic from side to side and eventually closing out the match with an exemplary service game to which Dancevic simply had no answer.

“For me this was a better result than getting to the final in Houston,” said a jubilant Zabaleta afterwards, who seemed keener to talk about meeting the “beautiful” Zeta-Jones at the post-match presentation than he was about his tennis.

“I had so many tough matches and I had to fight so incredibly hard. But I stayed focused and played most of the important points really well, which can be the difference between winning and losing as a professional.

“I’m so happy though because I was injured for so long and you do start to think maybe you will never be as good as you were before. I played really badly in the first couple of months of this year as well and I really didn’t know how I was going to improve.

“I have played a lot of matches in the last three weeks, which is what I needed to find my game, but now I’m very tired and am going to take a couple of weeks off before I go to Europe to prepare for the French (Open).

“I had a really great week here in Bermuda, I love the tournament and the people. I also love Catherine Zeta-Jones! It was a total surprise when she presented the trophy to me — she is incredible!”