Buenos Aires, Feb 19 (IANS): Austria's Dominic Thiem claimed his second Argentina Open title, defeating Slovenia's Aljad Bedene 6-2 and 6-4, while Argentina's Andres Molteni and Horacio Zeballos topped Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in doubles.

Thiem, 24, on Sunday needed just an hour and 30 minutes to knock off Bedene in the clay-court final, adding his ninth trophy to his previous wins at Gstaad, Umag and Nice in 2015, Stuttgart, Nice, Acapulco and Buenos Aires in 2016 and Rio de Janeiro in 2017, reported Efe.

Molteni and Zeballos, who were highly favoured to win, downed Cabal and Farah 6-3, 5-7 and 10-3 before more than 5,000 Argentine fans and supporters.

Thiem, No 6 in the world, has now defeated Bedene three times in as many matchups, the previous two victories coming in the Dona final in 2018, and the first round of the 2015 Roland Garros tourney.

He had brushed aside Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-2, 6-1 here on Saturday to advance to the final, while Bedene had overcome a second-set hiccup to defeat home-crowd favorite Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 in that day's first semi-final.

Some $500,000 in prize money was awarded at this year's Argentina Open.