Guido Pella Defeats Kevin Anderson at Wimbledon to Reach Fourth Round at a Grand Slam for First Time Ever

Guido Pella is making a habit of big-name upsets at Wimbledon

The 29-year-old Argentine professional tennis player beat 2018 runner-up Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(4) on Centre Court on Friday afternoon. Twelve months ago, Pella had never won a grass-court match in his career, but edged past 2017 finalist Marin Cilic on No. 1 Court en route to the third round.

Guido Pella

Pella, whose fastest serve clocked 124 miles per hour in comparison to 136 from Anderson, played with great variety and kept his fourth-seeded South African opponent on the move for victory in two hours and 34 minutes. 

He’s now through to the fourth round of a Grand Slamchampionship for the first time in his career, where he’ll play 2016 finalist Milos Raonic, the No. 15 seed from Canada, on Monday.

“I haven’t played him,” said Raonic. “It’s going to be tough. He played well here last year, beating Marin, obviously getting a good win today, and even in his last match over [Andreas]Seppi, who has always played well on grass…. He’s been on tour for a long time, and I don’t know if he’s been to this stage of a Grand Slam. But to beat Kevin here, that’s a job very well done.”

Pella twice came within one point of a set and 4-1 lead, before Anderson worked his way back to 3-3 in the second set. But Anderson, contesting just his fourth tournament of 2019 as a result of a right elbow injury, struggled on second serve and in controlling his backhand.

Pella clinched the first set with a break when Anderson hit a forehand into the net; the second set turned once more in his favour when Anderson failed to cleanly run down and strike back a well-placed lob, while clinical play in the third set tie-break sent Pella on his way to a 26th match win this season.

In the penultimate point of the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting, No. 26 seed Pella dropped to the floor fist-pumping after winning a 17-stroke rally at close quarters with a forehand volley. The same shot, coupled with good anticipation, helped him seconds later to a memorable victory.

Both players have won ATP Tour titles this year: Anderson at the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune (d. Karlovic) and Pella at the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo (d. Garin). Anderson returned from his injury at the Fever-Tree Championships last month for the first time since Miami. Pella is tied with Rafael Nadalfor most clay-court match wins this year (21).

Opelka saved eight break points to Raonic’s three prior to the first set tie-break, which the Canadian wrapped up when Opelka made a forehand error. Opelka’s challenge quickly faltered. He hit three double faults at 2-3 in the second set, then committed three groundstroke errors at 2-5 to hand Raonic a commanding lead. Opelka won just six points in the third set.

“I thought it was good. I did the things I wanted to do. When it was important, I played as well as I could have,” said Raonic. “All the break points I had in the first set, he did his part in making sure I had really no chance other than one. Maybe I would have taken back that attempt of a lob and tried to go through him, but other than that I don’t think I hesitated much or made many poor decisions out there.”

Pablo Cuevas Reaches Estoril Open Final

Pablo Cuevasis back in a final…

The 33-year-old Uruguayan professional tennis player beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday to reach the Estoril Open final.

Pablo Cuevas

It’s Cuevas’ first final appearance since the 2017 Brasil Openand the 10th of his career.

Cuevas has won 11 of his last 13 matches on clay court. And he has now won three or more matches in two of his last four tournaments. 

He’ll face top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas, who defeated David Goffin 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Cuevas Makes History by Claiming Third Straight Brasil Open Title

It’s a three-peat for Pablo Cuevas.

The 31-year-old Argentine-born Uruguayan tennis player beat Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4, 6-4, in a rain-affected final to make history by claiming his third straight Brasil Open title.

Pablo Cuevas

The match was postponed on Sunday night when heavy rain forced players off the court with Ramos-Vinolas leading Cuevas 7-6 (3), 3-3.

Play finally resumed on Monday night after almost 24 hours of constant rain at the outdoor clay court venue here.

Cuevas took control immediately after the restart before wrapping up the match.

It was Cuevas’ sixth ATP singles title, all of which have been on clay.

Dutra Silva Claims First-Ever ATP World Tour Doubles Title

It’s a special first for Rogerio Dutra Silva

The 33-year-old Brazilian tennis player has claimed his first ATP World Tour doubles title.

Dutra Silva and his partner and compatriot Andre Sa defeated fourth-seeded Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner in the Men’s Doubles final to claim the Brasil Open championship title by a final score of 7-6 (5), 5-7, 10-7.

Dutra Silva and Sa failed to convert any of their five break opportunities in the match, but did save six out of seven of their opponents’ break point chances. It took just over two hours for the clash to be concluded; two hours and two minutes.

Prior to the Sao Paulo event, Sa and Dutra Silva had never played together, making all the way to the finals in first-ever tournament as a team.

Doubles specialist Sa now has 11 ATP doubles titles to his name, while Dutra Silva has captured his first-ever ATP doubles title.

In the semifinals, Dutra Silva and Sa, unseeded in the tournament, beat Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and eight minutes.

Cuevas Gunning for Record Third Consecutive Brasil Open Title

Pablo Cuevas is gunning for a three-peat

The 31-year-old Argentine-born Uruguayan tennis player will go for a record third consecutive Brasil Open title on Sunday.

Pablo Cuevas

Cuevas dismissed top seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-3, 7-6(2) on Saturday in Sao Paulo to give himself a chance for the three-peat.

The third-seed won 82 percent of his first-serve points and feasted on Carreno Busta’s second serves, taking 70 percent of those points.

Since the first edition of the Brasil Open, in 2001, no player has won back-to-back-to-back titles at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament.

Spaniard Nicolas Almagro won back-to-back crowns in 2011-2012 but fell in the quarter-finals to David Nalbandian in 2013.

Cuevas has avoided such slip-ups this week.

He’ll try to win his sixth career ATP World Tour title – all on clay – against second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Cuevas leads their head-to-head series 3-1. The Spaniard erased a match point on Saturday against Portuguese Joao Sousa to win his semifinal 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-2 on the red clay.

Sousa had the match on his racquet, serving at 5-4 in the second set. The fourth seed fell behind 0/40 but crawled back into the game and led at ad-in. But Ramos-Vinolas erased the match point with a sharp forehand up the line that Sousa netted.

The Spaniard would earn the break and take the final nine of 11 games to claim the three-hour and three-minute semi-final.

Ramos-Vinolas last played in an ATP World Tour title match in October at the Chengdu Open in China (l. to Khachanov). He’ll be going for his second ATP World Tour crown after taking his maiden title last July on clay at the Swedish Open in Bastad (d. Fernando Verdasco).

Delbonis Reaches Men’s Final at the Brasil Open

Could the second time be the charm for Federico Delbonis?

In a hard-fought semifinal match at the Brasil Open, the 23-year-old professional tennis player defeated home-crowd favorite Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in 2 hours, 9 minutes to reach a title match for only the second time in his career.

Federico Delbonis

Delbonis, who lost his first finals match in Hamburg last year, will play Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi – ranked No. 114 in the world – in the men’s final.

Top-seeded Tommy Haas retired from his semifinal match against Lorenzi on Saturday.

Lorenzi was leading Haas 6-3, 3-2 when the German called it quits due to a shoulder injury.

Lorenzi and the No. 61-ranked Delbonis have never faced each other before on the ATP World Tour.

Almagro Defends His Title at the Nice Open

Following an impressive run in France, Nicolas Almagro has claimed his 12th career title.

The 26-year-old Spanish tenista defeated American qualifier Brian Baker 6-3, 6-2 to win the Open de Nice Côte d’Azur on Saturday and clinch his second title of the season and 12th of his career.

Nicolas Almagro

Almagro, currently ranked No. 12 in the world, broke the 216th-ranked Baker’s serve in the fourth and eighth games of the second set. And, the defending champion had 11 aces in the match.

Almagro concluded his impressive run without dropping a set all week. And he improved to 12-5 lifetime in ATP World Tour finals after he beat Baker in a mere 70 minutes at the French Riviera tournament.

“I played my best tennis in two years here,” said Almagro. “I am very happy with my serve and my forehand. I moved on the court very, very well. Today, was one of those matches you want to keep in your mind for the rest of the season, because I couldn’t have played much better. Today was amazing. I am happy with my form, my tennis and my team. We will aim to keep working hard, so I play, in future, as I did today.”

Almagro improved to 35-11 on the season, which includes one other trophy success at the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo.