Two years after winning his first ATP Tour match in Rio de Janeiro, 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz of Spain on Sunday became the youngest player to clinch an ATP 500 title at the same event when he defeated Diego Schwartzman in the final of the Rio Open.
It was a second ATP Tour title for Alcaraz after his victory in Umag, Croatia, last year and his 6-4, 6-2 victory against world No. 13 Schwartzman made him the youngest ATP 500 champion since the category was created in 2009.
“I can’t believe it, honestly. It has been a great week for me playing a great level,” Alcaraz said on court after his win. “First tournament on clay since a long time, so I’m really happy with the performance during the whole week. It’s an amazing feeling right now.”
Photo: Reuters
Alcaraz, who won the NextGen ATP Finals last year, went into Sunday’s final after having to play both his quarter-final and semi-final matches on Saturday because of a scheduling logjam due to rain earlier in the week.
He defeated top seed and world No. 6 Matteo Berrettini and another Italian Fabio Fognini, a former top-10 player, and climbed to a career-best 20th in the ATP Tour rankings.
“It has been a tough week,” said Alcaraz, who withdrew from this week’s ATP 500 tournament on the hard courts in Acapulco, Mexico, due to a slight niggle. “To be in the top 20 was a goal for me at the end of the year and to be able to do that at the beginning is amazing.”
DELRAY BEACH OPEN
AFP, DELRAY BEACH, Florida
Britain’s Cameron Norrie on Sunday captured his third career ATP Tour title, outlasting Reilly Opelka of the US 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/4) in the Delray Beach Open final.
The 26-year-old left-hander won after 1 hour, 51 minutes to hoist his first trophy of the year after taking crowns last year in Indian Wells, California, and Los Cabos, Mexico.
“I really enjoyed my time on court in Delray this week,” he said.
Opelka blasted 25 aces past Norrie, but it was not enough for him to claim back-to-back titles after taking his third ATP Tour title the previous weekend at the Dallas Open.
World No. 13 Norrie, a semi-final loser last year, improved to 3-5 in career ATP Tour finals.
World No. 20 Opelka, 24, had split two prior matches with Norrie, the American winning a US Open tune-up in New York in 2020 and Norrie taking an indoor match in Paris last year.
“You’re moving great. You’re playing great,” Norrie told Opelka. “I’m sure you’re going to break into the top 10 real soon.”
OPEN 13 PROVENCE
AFP, MARSEILLE, France
Andrey Rublev on Sunday won his ninth career title by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) in the Open 13 Provence final.
“All the battles I have had with Felix since the first time back in 2018 have had drama,” Rublev said in his on-court interview. “All have had at least one set that went 7-6 and now he is one of the greatest players.”
The Russian, ranked seventh in the world, took revenge on the Canadian who won their meeting in the Rotterdam semi-final the previous weekend on the way to a first career title, after losing all eight previous finals he had played.
“I’ve had two good weeks,” the Canadian said. “I hope to win more titles.”
Auger-Aliassime broke Rublev in the second game of the match, but Rublev broke back at once and broke again in the 12th game to take the set.
In the second set, Rublev failed to serve out for the match at 5-4, but saved a set point in his next service game to force a tiebreak, which he won to clinch the match in 1 hour, 57 minutes.
“From 5-4 he started to play even better and I was thinking it would go to three sets, but somehow I was able to raise my level and in the end it was tough,” Rublev said.
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