Chilean No.1 Christian Garin has continued his unbeaten run on the clay this season by lifting the Rio Open title on Sunday.
The 23-year-old held his nerve to defeat Italian underdog Gianluca Mager 7-6(3), 7-5. A player who knocked Dominic Thiem out of the tournament earlier this week and was playing in his first ATP Final at the age of 25. During the final Garin lost a break advantage in the first set before battling back to prevail in the tiebreak. Then in the second, he claimed four straight games whilst trailing 3-5 to lift the title. His first ever at ATP 500 level.
“I’m really emotional and winning the Rio Open means a lot to me. It’s hard to describe this past week. I slept only four or five hours and woke up nervous this morning and it ended up being one of the best days of my life”, Garin told rioopen.com.
“Winning an event of this magnitude motivates me even more. I will never forget this week. And receiving the trophy from Gustavo Kuerten’s hand means so much to me… It’s for moments like this that I play tennis and make daily sacrifices. This means so so much to me and I’m still really emotional. Now it’s time to enjoy a bit and tomorrow I’m back to work.”
It is the second consecutive tournament Garin has won on the ATP Tour. Tour weeks ago, he won the Córdoba Open in Argentina, where he defeated Diego Schwzrtman in the final. He has now won nine matches in a row since the Australian Open.
As a result of his surge on the tour, the former French Open boy’s champion has broken into the world’s top 20 for the first time this week. Making him the first player from his country to do so since Fernando Gonzalez back in 2010. He is now the second highest ranked player from South America after Schwartzman, who is ranked five places ahead of him in 13th spot.
“I’m happy with my ranking and I also know I have a lot of things to get better, so that’s a good a thing. It means I still have a long way to go.” He said.
Garin has now played five finals on the ATP Tour within the past 12 months with all of them occurring on the clay.
Opelka dominates Delray
Another winner on the ATP Tour on Sunday was America’s Reilly Opelka, who was forced to play two matches within one day en route to the title due to poor weather earlier in the week.
Opelka kicked-off proceedings with a hard fought 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3, win over former world No.3 Milos Raonic. A stern encounter that lasted just over two hours. A couple hours later, Opelka returned to the court for his title clash against Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka, who was contesting his first ATP final outside of Asia. Nishioka defeated Opelka two weeks ago at the New York Open.
Engaged in another lengthy battle, the home favourite fired 27 aces and won 87% of his first service points to down Nishioka 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-2. Making it the fourth time an American man has won the title within the past five years. The only exception was Radu Albot, who was triumphant in 2019.
“It was important for me to get that second break in the third, especially against Yoshi, who scraps and fights,” Opelka said of his opponent. “Yoshi’s a nightmare. He’s not a guy you want to play when you’re already fatigued and tired. So physically it was really a big test for me. I think that was right around my limit, playing six sets like that. Almost feels like playing a grand slam. I’ve played a lot of tennis (lately), so it was a test of my fitness. Hard part for me is warming up my body every day. I didn’t have much time to recover.”
The victory comes after what has been a slow start to the season for Opelka. In his first three tournaments played, he has only managed to win one match. Doing so against Jason Jung in New York.
Despite falling short, there is still a reason for Nishioka to celebrate. The 24-year-old has climbed 15 places in the rankings to a career high of 48th in the world.
“It’s very tough to break his service game,” Nishioka said of facing Opelka. “I don’t have a big serve. (But) I made a final this time, which is not bad I think, so next time maybe a trophy.”
Opelka has also risen 15 places in the rankings to 39th in the world. Eight spot before his career best.
