Tag Archives: Rio Open

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

Cristian Garin Defeats Borna Coric to Reach Rio Open Final

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It’s a personal best for Cristian Garin…

Following a rain delay, the 23-year-old Chilean tennis player defeated fifth seed Borna Coric 6-4, 7-5in the semifinalsat the Rio Open to log a personal best eighth consecutive match win.

Cristian Garin

Garin, the tournament’s third seed, slept on a 6-4, 4-4 advantage, with rain suspending play. He wasted little time completing his victory, needing just four games on Sunday to reach his fifth ATP Tourfinal (3-1). All five of his tour-level championship matches have come in the past year.

Garin faced a break point in the first game of the resumption, but he was able to maintain his poise and advance after one hour and 44 minutes.

The recent Cordoba Open champion will face Italian qualifier Gianluca Mager or Hungarian lucky loser Attila Balazs.

Guido Pella Wins First-Ever Professional Title at Brazil Open

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It’s a special first for Guido Pella…

The 28-year-old Argentine tennis player has claimed his first professional title at the Brazil Open.

Guido Pella, Brazil Open,

Pella, the tournament’s third seed, beat Chile’s Christian Garin 7-5, 6-3 in an all-South American final on Sunday to claim his maiden title.

The last time an Argentine player lifted the trophy was Federico Delbonis five years ago.

It was only the second meeting of the two finalists. The previous occasion saw Pella win in the second round of last year’s Argentina Open.

He’d previously been a runner-up four times, at the Rio Open in 2016, the Bavarian Championships in 2017, and the Croatia Open Umag and the Cordoba Open in 2018.

Guido Pella Advances to Brazil Open Final

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Guido Pella has made it to the Brazil Openfinal…

The 28-year-old Argentine tennis player advanced by beating Rio Open champion Laslo Djere of Serbia 7-6 (10), 7-6 (1) at the clay-court event Saturday.

Guido Pella

He’ll next face Christian Garin of Chile in Sunday’s final.

Garin eliminated Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4.

The only time the two have previously met was last year in the second round of the Argentina Open. Pella won 6-3, 7-6 (3) on that occasion.

Neither has won a professional title.

Bellucci Upsets No. 1 Seed Kei Nishikori in First Round at Rio Open

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Thomaz Bellucci has started his home country tournament with a bang…

The 29-year-old Brazilian tennis player, ranked No. 75 in the world, defeated Kei Nishikori on Tuesday in straight sets.

Thomaz Bellucci

Bellucci upset the top seed in the first round of the Rio de Janeiro Open (Rio Open) 6-4, 6-3.

“It could be the worst match in the last few years,” Nishikori said.

Bellucci, the home country favorite pulled the huge upset during Carnival week in Brazil.

“You don’t see Kei break the racket often,” Bellucci said of Nishikori, who smashed his racket after losing the first set.

Bellucci had lost his previous two matches against Nishikori, including a three-set loss two years ago in the first round of the French Open.

“For me it’s amazing to have a victory like this in Brazil,” Bellucci said. “He’s an unbelievable player. A top five. So it was amazing.”

Cuevas Defeats Guido Pella to Claim Rio Open Title

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Pablo Cuevas has claimed his first tournament win of 2016…

The 30-year-old Uruguayan tennis player claimed his fourth ATP singles title with a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 victory over Argentina’s Guido Pella in the final of the Rio Open on Sunday.

Pablo Cuevas

The match was delayed for more than three hours by a torrential downpour with the first set tied at 3-3.

Cuevas, who defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals, came out of the break fresher than Pella, a first-time ATP Tour finalist.

The Rio Open was plagued by rain all week and the men’s final was played in a sparsely filled center-court stadium.

Cuevas, ranked No. 27 in the world, has won all for of his titles on clay. His other titles were in Sao Paulo (2015), and Umag (2014) and Bastad (2014).

Ferrer Beats Fabio Fognini to Claim the Rio Open Title

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It could turn out to be a memorable year for David Ferrer…

The 32-year-old Spanish tennis player won his second tournament of the season, downing Italy’s Fabio Fognini on Sunday 6-2, 6-3 in the final of the Rio Open.

David Ferrer

It’s the 23rd ATP singles title of his career for Ferrer, who has won all eight matches he has played against Fognini, including the previous one — the final on clay last year in Buenos Aires.

Ferrer was seeded No. 2 in the clay-court tournament behind countryman Rafael Nadal.

“It was my best match of the tournament and I’m very happy having won two tournaments this season,” said the 32-year-old Ferrer, who is off to the best start of his career.

Ferrer also won the Qatar Open in Doha.

Nadal lost to No. 6 Fognini in Saturday’s semifinal 1-6, 6-2, 7-5. The loss ended Nadal’s 52-match winning string in semifinals on clay. Nadal, the winner of 14 Grand Slams, has yet to reach the final in three tournaments this season.

Fognini was looking for his fourth ATP singles title.