back on track this week.

From then on, it was all in the hands of the soon-to-be 23-year-old, as he roared to the XL Bermuda Open championship.

Van Herck's 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 dismantling of seventh-seed Sargis Sargsian in the final on centre court yesterday capped a memorable week that was as much a victory for the Belgian Davis Cupper's spirit as it was for his coach.

It goes back to Monday night when Van Herck, frustrated over the state of his game and haunted by a Davis Cup loss 48 hours earlier to Denmark's Frederik Fetterlein, arrived in Bermuda.

"I wasn't feeling too good,'' Van Herck conceded. "I came here a little down.'' The reason, Gonnisson explained, was that Van Herck is a perfectionist who demands a lot of himself. "His main goal is to break into the top 50 this year and he felt he wasn't getting there fast enough,'' he said.

Fast forward to Tuesday. Van Herck, ranked 96th in the world, is practising for his first round match against South Africa's Marcos Ondruska. Gonnisson stops the practice and calls Van Herck over. The two begin chatting -- and for 45 minutes, Van Herck unloads his demons and Gonnisson gets him thinking about one point at a time.

That night, Van Herck demolished the 106th-ranked Ondruska 6-0, 6-0, nailing an almost unheard of 25 shots right on the line. On Thursday, he knocked off sixth-seeded Patrik Frediksson 7-5, 7-5, on Friday took apart Nicolas Lapentti 6-4, 6-2 and in Saturday's semi-finals, swept Brett Steven 6-2, 7-6 (3).

Sargsian, though, figured to be a different challenge altogether. A 24-year-old former NCAA champion, Sargsian grew up playing clay court in his native Armenia and has climbed to a career-high number 89 in the world this year. He dumped Mark Knowles, Jeff Salzenstein and Marcelo Charpentier -- although the latter two retired because of injuries -- and then, in the semi-finals, stopped Javier Frana, the 30-year-old Argentinian who had looked unbeatable throughout the week.

If Van Herck was paying attention, he didn't let on.

"I had a lot of confidence with all my shots so I really wasn't worried what he was doing,'' Van Herck said.

And confidence was one thing Sargsian said he needed.

"I just never really felt comfortable out there today,'' said Sargsian, who dropped the first set in less than 20 minutes. "Instead of going out and playing aggressive I just stayed back and kept hoping somehow I could a win a point.'' Even the second set, when he broke Van Herck at 0-2 and then climbed out of a 3-4 hole by blistering three aces in his final four serves to knot the set, provided only "a bit of a lift,'' Sargsian said, Sargsian went on to steal that set, breaking Van Herck's serve for a 5-4 lead and then, from deuce, launching a forehand down the line that Van Herck could only watch.

"He was battling unbelievably in the second set,'' Van Herck said.

That was when some of Van Herck's old frustrations began to show but, remembering the talk with his coach, he slammed the door on his opponent to start the third set.

Sargsian volleyed three successive shots into the net to lose his serve in the second game and Van Herck, bursting with confidence, dropped just three points in winning the next three games.

"He never let me back into it,'' Sargsian said.

In contrast to Sargsian's unforced errors, a mistake-free Van Herck made nearly every shot count, mixing powerful baseline strokes with precision backhands to the corner, and overpowering serves with timely charges to the net. Even drop shots which the speedy Sargsian usually puts away were working.

When it was over, Van Herck had picked up the $18,000 first-prize cheque and what he called his biggest victory on the ATP Tour.

Both players acknowledged the breezy conditions made playing difficult and Van Herck went so far as to suggest he "played better with the wind'' than did Sargsian. Sargsian, though, wasn't using that as a crutch.

"You better be playing well if you want to win (against Van Herck),'' he said.

ONE FOR THE MONEY -- Belgium's Johan Van Herck raises his fist in triumph after his victory over Sargis Sargsian in the XL Bermuda Open final yesterday.

OPEN AT A GLANCE SEMI-FINALS Singles Sargis Sargsian (7), Armenia, d Javier Frana, Argentina, 7-5, 6-4 Johan Van Herck, Belgium, d Brett Steven, New Zealand, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 Doubles Lucas Arnold/Daniel Orsenic d Scott Draper/Jason Stoltenberg 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 Javier Frana/Mark Knowles d Sandon Stolle/Cyril Suk 7-5, 6-2 FINALS Singles Johan Van Herck d Sargis Sargsian 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 Doubles Javier Frana/Mark Knowles d Lucas Arnold/Daniel Orsenic, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3