Tag Archives: Rio Open

Carlos Alcaraz Defeats Daniil Medvedev to Successfully Defend Indian Wells Title

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Carlos Alcaraz is celebrating a special repeat..

The 20-year-old Spanish tennis player, who arrived at Indian Wells full of doubt about his twisted right ankle, has left a two two-time champion.

Carlos AlcarazAlcaraz defeated Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (5), 6-1 for the second straight year in the men’s final on Sunday, earning his first title since winning Wimbledon last year.

Alcaraz sprained his ankle at the Rio Open in late February. His first practice at Indian Wells lasted 30 minutes without any movement. His first practice with his fellow pros “was really tough for me,” he said in a Tennis Channel interview.

Alcaraz outlasted Jannik Sinner in a three-set semifinal after needing three sets to get out of his second-round match.

“After every match I was feeling better,” Alcaraz said. “I was getting more confident after every match. Winning a Master 1000 again, a really important tournament to win, gives you motivation to keep going.”

Alcaraz became the first man to defend his Indian Wells title since Novak Djokovic won three in a row from 2014 to 2016. He beat Medvedev 6-3, 6-2 last year in the Southern California desert.

“It’s definitely your court, you like it here,” Medvedev told Alcaraz during the victory ceremony. “Hopefully you can one day let me play a little bit better here.”

Medvedev led 3-0 in the first set while Alcaraz had eight unforced errors over those games. The Spaniard won three games in a row to tie it 3-3.

The players held serve the rest of the set, with Alcaraz serving a love game to get into the tiebreaker. He led 3-0 and 5-2 before Medvedev tied it 5-5. Alcaraz won the next two points to close it out.

Alcaraz got the only two breaks in the second set, when Medvedev had one winner and nine errors.

For the match, Alcaraz hit 25 winners and had 26 unforced errors, while Medvedev had 11 winners and 23 unforced errors.

Alcaraz is the second player to win five or more ATP Masters 1000 titles before their 21st birthday since the series began in 1990. The other is Rafael Nadal.

Alcaraz earned $1.1 million for his win. That’s less than the $1.26 million the men’s champion received in 2023. This year more prize money was allocated to the earlier rounds, reducing the champions’ prize money by nearly 13%.

Sebastian Baez Defeats Compatriot Mariano Navone to Claim Rio Open Title

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Sebastian Baez has claimed the fifth and biggest title of his career…

On Sunday, the 23-year-old Argentine professional tennis player defeated compatriot Mariano Navone 6-2, 6-1 at the Rio Open.

Sebastian Baez,The fifth-seeded Baez wasn’t seriously challenged by the 22-year-old Navone, a qualifier, in the final of the clay-court tournament.

Neither of the two Argentinians had been among the favorites to lift the title, but defending champion Cameron Norrie, Carlos Alcaraz, Stan Wawrinka and Nicolás Jarry had all stumbled.

Baez is the second Argentinian to lift the trophy, with Diego Schwartzman the first in 2018.

Baez is set to climb to a career-high No. 21 in the rankings on Monday, from his current No. 30.

Navone will become a top 100 player for the first time, reaching No. 60 after Rio.

Mariano Navone Defeats Cameron Norrie in Stunning Upset at Rio Open to Reach First-Ever ATP 500 Final

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Mariano Navone,” the 30th-ranked Báez said. “We are using this [tournament] to climb up, we are young. I like to play in Rio, come to Brazil. When I don’t play against a Brazilian I feel like a local.”

By beating his first Top 50 opponent, Navone became the first qualifier to reach an ATP 500 final since Jiri Vesely accomplished the feat in Dubai in 2022.

“It was incredible,” he said post-match. “It’s a pleasure to play here in Rio, my first ATP 500. I’m very happy to make the final, my first final. I played so good all week and I hope [to win] the title tomorrow.”

Sebastian Baez Defeats Francisco Cerundolo at Rio Open to Reach His First ATP 500 Final

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Sebastian Baez has reached the biggest ATP Tour final of his career…

The 23-year-old Argentine professional tennis player faced three set points at 4-5 in the opening set on Saturday at the Rio Open. He saved each one under pressure from compatriot Francisco Cerundolo and didn’t lose another game en route to a 7-5, 6-0 victory at the ATP 500.

Sebastian Baez

Baez’s nine-game tear earned him the win in his first semifinal above ATP 250 level. He will now play for his fifth and biggest tour-level title on Sunday.

While Baez twice beat Cerundolo on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2021, Saturday’s win was his first in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series, which is now level at 1-1.

“We know each other too much, I think more than I want,” Baez joked after the win. “All matches are different. Today it’s going to my side. In the first set, I gave many break points to him. I had to take it because it’s so hard for both.”

After an early trade of breaks, Baez saved six consecutive break points in the one-hour, 24-minute match. He converted on four of his seven break chances and won more than half of his return points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

“It’s hard but I always try to be focused on the next point, on the next game, every time thinking about my game and what I have to do,” Baez said of his surge through the finish line.

Cerundolo, who was also bidding to reach his first final above the ATP 250 level, struggled with 39 unforced errors, including 26 off his backhand wing. Despite the loss, he will return to the Top 20 in the ATP Rankings on Monday.

Baez is up seven places to No. 23 this week in the ATP Live Rankings, setting himself up for a career high. He could move up to No. 21 with the Rio title.

Joao Fonseca Becomes First Player Born in 2006 to Win an ATP Tour-Level Match

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Joao Fonseca is making ATP Tour history…

The 17-year-old Brazilian tennis player became the first player born in 2006 to win an ATP Tour-level match when he beat seventh-seeded Arthur Fils 6-0, 6-4 at the Rio Open on Wednesday.

Joao FonsecaFonseca defeated the No. 36-ranked Frenchman in front of raucous fans at the clay court tournament in Rio de Janeiro. He knelt on the court in tears to celebrate.

“This is where I belong. I want to be in these huge stadiums,” said Fonseca, who won the US Open boys singles title last year. “Now it is all about focusing on the process.”

Fonseca, currently ranked No. 655, is expected to jump about 200 positions after beating Fils. Fonseca said he is yet to decide whether he will play tennis for an American university later this year.

“For now I am very focused in the pro-tour, I want to get to the top,” said Fonseca. “That is going to be a personal decision with my family, I won’t make it public now,.”

His opponent in the round of 16 will be Cristian Garin of Chile.

Fonseca’s victory brought some new energy for local fans, who saw three of the title favorites crash out Tuesday.

Carlos Alcaraz abandoned his match against Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro due to an ankle injury; three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka lost to Argentina’s Facundo Díaz Acosta in straight sets; and Chile’s Nicolás Jarry was knocked out by Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann in three sets.

Fourth-seeded Francisco Cerúndolo of Argentina advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Spain’s Albert Ramos-Viñolas 6-2, 6-1.

Rain later postponed to Thursday the match between second-seeded and defending champion Cameron Norrie against Chile’s Tomás Barrios Vera for a place among the last eight.

Facundo Díaz Acosta Defeats Nicolas Jarry at Argentina Open to Claim First-Ever ATP Tour Singles Title

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Facundo Díaz Acosta’s wild(card) ride has come to a triumphant end…

The 23-year-old Argentine professional tennis player, a wildcard at the Argentina Open, won his maiden ATP Tour singles title on Sunday by beating Chile’s Nicolás Jarry 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the clay-court tournament.

Facundo DiazThe ATP said that Diaz Acosta became only the second left-handed champion — after Rafael Nadal — at the Buenos Aires tournament.

Díaz Acosta began the week with a career-high ranking of 87. He’s set to rise to No. 59 when the rankings are released Monday.

“This is yet to sink in,” Díaz Acosta told raucous fans. “I have dreamed about this moment for a long time, working with my team and having my family to back me. It is a dream come true that this happened in Argentina.”

Third-seeded Jarry was chasing his fourth ATP title.

Díaz Acosta’s victory was easier than expected against Jarry, who struggled to compete after beating defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals.

Alcaraz is now set to compete at the Rio Open in Brazil, also on clay, which he won in 2022

Nicolas Jarry Outlasts Tomas Martin Etcheverry at Chile Open for First ATP Title Since 2019

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Nicolas Jarry is officially a hometown hero…

The 27-year-old Chilean professional tennis player, the home crowd favorite, came from behind to beat Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2 to clinch the Chile Open final on Sunday, his first title at the ATP level since 2019.

Nicolas JarryJarry served a doping suspension in 2020 and his ranking tumbled.

His run to the title in the clay court tournament at Chile came the week after Jarry reached the semifinals of the Rio Open, where he lost a tough match to Carlos Alcaraz, and is projected to put him back into the top 60 in the ATP Tour rankings.

“It is really unbelievable, it means a lot to me, specially doing it for the two weeks in a row,” Jarry said. “Winning the second tiebreaker was very important emotionally.”

Jarry and Etcheverry had met only once previously, in the first round at Cordoba last year, which the Argentine won in three sets.

Carlos Alcaraz Reaches Second Final of the Year at Rio Open

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Carlos Alcaraz is heading to his second final of the season, and he’ll face the same foe…

The 19-year-old Spanish tennis player and Cameron Norrie won semifinal matches on Saturday to set up their second straight final at the Rio Open.

Carlos AlcarazAlcaraz worked hard to beat Nicolas Jarry 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-0 on Saturday. Hours earlier, Norrie topped Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (3). They will meet in Sunday’s title match.

The top-seeded players in the clay court tournament also clashed last weekend in the final of the Argentina Open, which Alcaraz won in straight sets.

Alcaraz dropped only his second set in the Rio Open tournament against Jarry.

Alcaraz was in trouble with Jarry’s effective service in the first two sets but showed he had more energy in the third, blanking Jarry in the final set with a dominant performance.

Norrie will play his third final of the year. He needed 2½ hours to beat Zapata Miralles. In the deciding set, Norrie saved a break point in the fifth game, broke the Spaniard in the sixth but was forced to a tiebreak. His stronger first service made the difference.

“I tried to finish the points a little bit too early. I was a bit overconfident,” Norrie said.

Asked what he needs to do differently from the finals in Buenos Aires and Auckland, which he lost to Alcaraz and Richard Gasquet, Norrie said: “I have to play better in the big moments.”

Norrie currently leads the tour in wins in 2023, with 17 victories and three losses.

Carlos Alcaraz Defeats Cameron Norrie to Win Argentina Open Title

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Carlos Alcaraz has earned his first title of 2023…

The 19-year-old Spanish professional tennis player defeated Cameron Norrie in straight sets at the Argentina Open on Sunday to win his first title since his milestone US Open triumph.

Carlos AlcarazThe world No. 2 overcame No. 12 Norrie 6-3, 7-5 in the clay-court final.

“I felt very comfortable,” Alcaraz said. “This is the level that I have to play in a final. It is really special, I struggled in these four months.”

A right leg injury sidelined Alcaraz from the Australian Open, with Novak Djokovic reclaiming the No. 1 ranking from Alcaraz after winning the title there.

Alcaraz dropped only one set — to Serbia’s Laslo Djere — in his first tournament of the year.

After winning the first set in 36 minutes, Alcaraz quickly broke second-seeded Norrie in the second set, but the Briton hit back when the Spaniard was serving for the championship at 5-4.

Alcaraz broke Norrie with a drop shot to win the title.

Carlos AlcarazNorrie lost his second final of the year, after being bested by Richard Gasquet in Auckland in January.

Alcaraz next defends his title at the Rio Open.

Carlos Alcaraz Among ESPN’s ’21 Under 21′ Tennis Players to Watch in 2021

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Carlos Alcaraz is among the phenoms to watch this year…

ESPN has announced tennis’ 21 under 21 for 2021, with the 17-year-old Spanish tennis player among the sport’s rising stars making the grade.

Carlos Alcaraz

Despite the circumstances of the 2020 season, Alcaraz managed to move up 350 spots the rankings by year’s end, moving from No. 491 to No. 141, even reaching a career-high of No. 136 in October.

He started the year with back-to-back titles on the ITF Futures tour and was granted a wild card into the Rio Open in February. And the then-16-year-old made the most of his ATP Tour level debut, upsetting former World No. 17 Albert Ramos-Viñolas in 3 hours, 36 minutes in the opening round to become the first player born in 2003 to win a match and the youngest match winner since 2013. Alcaraz called the victory the high point of his season.

Following the restart of the season in August, Alcaraz went 20-4 in ATP Challenger events and won three titles at Trieste, Barcelona and Alicante, as well as playing in the final at Cordenons. He was named the ATP‘s Newcomer of the Year and is the youngest player in the top 600.

But Alcaraz, who idolizes fellow countryman Rafael Nadal, has even bigger goals for 2021. He hopes to make his first main draw appearance at a major in Australia in February and then play in all of the Grand Slams. As for his ranking? He’s hoping to make another big push in the new year.

“I want to finish the year in the top 50,” he said.

But Alcaraz isn’t the only Latinx tennis player to make the list…

Canada’s Leylah Fernandez completed her high school studies in the spring during the tour stoppage.

The 18-year-old half-Ecuadorian tennis player made her major main draw debut at the Australian Open in January — just a year removed from winning the junior title — but it was what she did in the weeks following the event that raised tennis fans’ eyebrows.

After losing in the first round in Melbourne, Fernandez scored her first win over a top-10 player (Belinda Bencic) while representing Canada in the Fed Cup (now known as the Billie Jean King Cup) in Switzerland. Later that month, she won six matches in seven days as a wild card qualifier in the Mexican Open, rolling into the final, where she ultimately lost to Heather Watson. The following week, she advanced to the quarterfinals at the Monterrey Open, defeating 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the second round.

Fernandez made a second-round appearance at the US Open and advanced to the third round of the French Open, where she took a 5-1 first-set lead over Petra Kvitova before the two-time major champion came back to win.

Fernandez thinks her 2021 will be even more successful. Her plan is to reach the top 10 by the end of the year.

Thiago Seyboth Wild wasn’t exactly the favorite entering the Chile Open last February after cracking the top 200 for the first time. But having notched one of the biggest wins of his career the week prior at the Rio Open in 3 hours, 49 minutes — the longest match ever in tournament history — over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, and taking World No. 32 Borna Ćorić to three sets the next round, the then-19-year old Brazilian tennis player was flying high entering the event.

What he did over the course of the week in Santiago was even more impressive.

Seyboth Wild knocked off three seeds en route to the title, becoming the first player born in the 2000s to win an ATP event and the youngest Brazilian champion in the Open era.

He found mixed results after the restart, losing in the first round of the US Open and not making it past qualifying at the French Open. But he made a finals appearance at a Challenger event in Aix-en-Provence, which lifted him to a career-high No. 106 in the rankings.

Seyboth Wild hopes to build off what he achieved in 2020 in the new year, although he says he focused more on some of the small things during the preseason.

Here’s the complete list in alphabetical order:

Carlos Alcaraz
Age: 17
Ranking: 141
Country: Spain
Career highlights: Winner of three ATP Challenger titles and three ITF Futures titles; Won his ATP main draw debut at the 2020 Rio Open

Bianca Andreescu
Age: 20
Ranking: 7
Country: Canada
Career highlights: Champion, 2019 US Open, 2019 Indian Wells and 2019 Canadian Open

Amanda Anisimova
Age: 19
Ranking: 30
Country: USA
Career highlights: Semifinals, 2019 French Open; Champion, 2019 Copa Colsanitas

Felix Auger-Aliassime
Age: 20
Ranking: 21 (77 in doubles)
Country: Canada
Career highlights: Fourth round, 2020 US Open; Six-time ATP finalist; Doubles champion, 2020 Paris Masters 

Leylah Fernandez
Age: 18
Ranking: 88
Country: Canada
Career highlights: Third round, 2020 French Open; Finalist, 2020 Mexican Open

Hugo Gaston
Age: 20
Ranking: 162
Country: France
Career highlights: Fourth round, 2020 French Open

Coco Gauff
Age: 16
Ranking: 48 (45 in doubles)
Country: USA
Career highlights: Fourth round, 2019 Wimbledon and 2020 Australian Open; Doubles quarterfinals, 2020 Australian Open; Champion, 2019 Linz Open; Doubles champion, 2019 Washington Open and 2019 Luxembourg Open

Varvara Gracheva
Age: 20
Ranking: 94
Country: Russia
Career highlights: Third round, 2020 US Open; Seven ITF titles 

Kaja Juvan
Age: 20
Ranking: 104
Country: Slovenia
Career highlights: Second round, 2019 Wimbledon, 2020 US Open, 2020 French Open; Seven ITF titles 

Sebastian Korda
Age: 20
Ranking: 118
Country: USA
Career highlights: Fourth round, 2020 French Open; One title on ATP Challenger Tour 

Marta Kostyuk
Age: 18
Ranking: 99 (112 in doubles)
Country: Ukraine
Career highlights: Third round, 2018 Australian Open, 2020 US Open; Three ITF singles titles, two ITF doubles titles 

Ann Li
Age: 20
Ranking: 98
Country: USA
Career highlights: Third round, 2020 US Open; Three ITF titles 

Caty McNally
Age: 19
Ranking: 121 (42 in doubles)
Country: USA
Career highlights: Third round, 2020 US Open; Doubles quarterfinals, 2020 Australian Open; Doubles champion, 2019 Washington Open and 2019 Luxembourg Open 

Lorenzo Musetti
Age: 18
Ranking: 128
Country: Italy
Career highlights: Semifinals, 2020 Sardinia; Third round, 2020 Italian Open; One ATP Challenger title and two ITF Futures titles 

Brandon Nakashima
Age: 19
Ranking: 166
Country: USA
Career highlights: Second round, 2020 US Open; One ATP Challenger title and two ITF Futures titles 

Anastasia Potapova
Age: 19
Ranking: 101 (133 in doubles)
Country: Russia
Career highlights: Second round, 2019 Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon; Finalist, 2018 Moscow River Cup, 2018 Tashkent Open; Doubles champion, 2018 Moscow River Cup, 2019 Lausanne

Thiago Seyboth Wild
Age: 20
Ranking: 116
Country: Brazil
Career highlights: First round, 2020 US Open; Champion, 2020 Chile Open

Jannik Sinner
Age: 19
Ranking: 37
Country: Italy
Career highlights: Quarterfinals, 2020 French Open; Champion, 2020 Sofia Open, 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals 

Iga Swiatek
Age: 19
Ranking: 17 (75 in doubles)
Country: Poland
Career highlights: Champion, 2020 French Open 

Clara Tauson
Age: 18
Ranking: 152
Country: Denmark
Career highlights: Second round, 2020 French Open; Seven ITF titles 

Dayana Yastremska
Age: 20
Ranking: 29 (90 in doubles)
Country: Ukraine
Career highlights: Fourth round, 2019 Wimbledon; Champion, 2018 Hong Kong, 2019 Hua Hin, 2019 Strasbourg