Tag Archives: Federico Delbonis

Delbonis Defeats Paolo Lorenzi at the Brazil Open to Claim His First ATP Title

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The second time’s the charm for Federico Delbonis…

Playing in only his second ATP final, the 23-year-old Argentine tennis player defeated Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Brazil Open final on Sunday to earn his first ATP title.

Federico Delbonis

Delbonis broke Lorenzi’s serve to start the decisive set and held on to close the match in 2 hours, 6 minutes after converting on his second match point.

He jumped and punched the air after sending a winner down the line past Lorenzi’s outstretched arms.

Delbonis celebrated a nearly perfect week in which he also reached the semifinals in the doubles tournament.

“To tell you the truth, I have no words,” Delbonis said. “I played well match after match. It was a great result in the end.”

In his first ATP final, Delbonis lost to Italy’s Fabio Fognini last July after upsetting Roger Federer in the semifinals in Hamburg.

With the victory at the ATP 250 tournament in Sao Paulo, Delbonis will move to 45th in the ATP rankings, a career best.

Lorenzi won the first set on Sunday after breaking Delbonis’ serve at 3-3, but the hard-hitting Argentine started serving well and was never broken again, finishing with 12 aces and no double faults.

Delbonis beat home-crowd favorite Thomaz Bellucci in the semifinals. He had defeated second-seeded Nicolas Almagro in the second round, a three-time winner at the Brazil Open.

It was the first time since 2007 that the Brazil Open wasn’t won by a Spanish player. Argentine Guillermo Canas lifted the trophy that year, and after that the tournament was won by Spaniards Almagro, Tommy Robredo, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Rafael Nadal.

Nadal decided not to defend the clay-court title this week. He chose to play in the first Rio Open, which he won last week.

Delbonis Reaches Men’s Final at the Brasil Open

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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.

Delbonis Defeats Albert Montanes to Reach the Brazil Open Semifinals

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There’s no crying for Argentina’s Federico Delbonis, only cheering…

The 23-year-old professional tennis player soundly defeated Spain’s Albert Montanes in just over an hour to advance to the Brazil Open semifinals.

Federico Delbonis

Delbonis, currently ranked No. 61 in the world, beat Montanes in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

He’s now one win away from reaching the second ATP tournament final of his career as he continues his quest to win his first career title.

Delbonis will next face either home-crowd favorite Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil or Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t such a positive experience for his fellow countrymen…

Top-seeded Tommy Haas came back to defeat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals.

Haas broke Zeballos’ serve twice in a row in the decisive set to close the match and take a step closer to his second final of the year.

Haas will next play Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, who reached his first ATP semifinal with an upset 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 6-4 win over fourth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina.

“Lorenzi has been around for a long time so this is a goal I’m sure he has been waiting to achieve for a lifetime,” Haas said. “He has nothing to lose and is going to try to go one more and get to his first ATP tour final. He is a dangerous player. I’m going to have to try to play some of my best tennis.”

The 114th-ranked Lorenzi broke Monaco’s serve to go up 4-3 in the final set and held on to close the match in 2 hours, 34 minutes at the Ibirapuera Arena.

The 32-year-old Italian squandered a match point before losing the second set, but was in control in the third to pick up the win in the ATP 250 tournament in South America’s biggest city.

Lorenzi served 12 aces en route to his first pro semifinal after five career quarterfinal losses.

“I’m very happy to finally break through to the semifinals,” Lorenzi said. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities before but was never able to come up with the victory at this stage. For sure this is one of my greatest weeks on the tour.”

The 43rd-ranked Monaco was trying to win his 200th clay-court match. He is the fifth-highest winner on the surface, behind Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Almagro.

Monaco had a set point in the first set but couldn’t capitalize on it.

“It was a very close match, he had his chances in the first set and I had mine in the second, it was very difficult,” Lorenzi said.

Nadal, the defending champion, is not playing at the clay-court tournament this year. He chose to play at the first edition of the Rio Open, which he won last week.

Bellucci Defeats Santiago Giraldo to Advance in the Brazil Open

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He may be playing on a wild card at the Brazil Open… But Thomaz Bellucci is proving he’s worth the spot.

The 26-year-old Brazilian tennis player pulled off an upset win over Santiago Giraldo, defeating the Colombian – the tournament’s eight seed – 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Brazil Open.

Thomaz Bellucci

The home-crowd favorite broke Giraldo’s serve to go up 4-2 in the final set, then held on to close out the match in just over two hours at the Ibirapuera arena. The break came right after Giraldo called for treatment on his lower back in between games.

Belluci, ranked No. 108 in the world, had six aces, including three in the decisive set.

“I couldn’t hold on to a 3-0 lead in the first set but I started playing better after that,” Bellucci said. “It makes a big difference to be playing at home with the support of the fans. They got behind me and I got to play more aggressively toward the end. It made a huge difference.”

Bellucci beat Giraldo in three sets last week at the Rio Open. He’ll next face Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer in the second round.

But Belluci isn’t the only Latino playing well in the tournament…

Earlier Tuesday, Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva defeated sixth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in 2 hours, 17 minutes. Albert Montanes of Spain beat Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 6-2, 6-2, while Federico Delbonis of Argentina defeated Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-1, 6-2.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal is not playing at the clay-court tournament this year. He won the Rio Open last week.

Second-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain will play Delbonis, while third-seeded Marcel Granollers plays Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

Argentina’s Juan Monaco, who had a bye in the first round along with the other top seeds, debuts against countrymen Guido Pella.

Delbonis Defeats Roger Federer to Reach His First-Ever ATP Final

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It took two tiebreakers, but Federico Delbonis has managed to take down a champion to reach his first ATP World final…

The 22-year-old Argentine tennis player, currently ranked No. 114 in the world, outplayed former World No. 1 Roger Federer 7-6 (7), 7-6 (4) Saturday in the semifinals of the German Tennis Championships.

Federico Delbonis

“He played well, he was a little more aggressive,” said Federer, a four-time champion at the tournament in Hamburg.

Delbonis, playing in only the second semifinal of his career, maintained his composure and gave Federer, a 17-time Grand Slam champion, only two break points, one of which he saved.

Federer broke for a 2-1 lead but was broken right back and had to save two set points to force the tiebreaker. He squandered a 4-2 lead, was unable to convert his one set point and saved three with service winners before Delbonis converted his fourth with a smash after some well-played points.

Federer came under pressure immediately in the second set and had to fend off three break points in his opening service game and another in the sixth. Delbonis saved one break point in the next game with an impressive volley winner.

In the tiebreaker, Federer made two straight groundstroke errors and he netted a forehand on Delbonis’ first match point.

Delbonis, who will improve to a career-high ranking of around No. 59, according to the ATP, will play Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the final. Fognini defeated third-seeded Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 7-6 (1).

Fognini won his first career title in Stuttgart last week and is riding a nine-match winning streak.

Delbonis Earns a Spot in the Semis at the German Tennis Championships

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Federico Delbonis is preparing for one of the biggest matches of his professional career….

The 22-year-old Argentine tennis player, a qualifier at the German Tennis Championships in Hamburg, defeated Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8), 6-4 to earn a spot in the semifinals of a tournament for only the second time in his career.

Federico Delbonis

Delbonis, currently ranked No. 114 in the world, will next play the tournament’s top seed Roger Federer, who is ranked No. 5 in the world.

But reaching the semi-finals wasn’t exactly a breeze…

Delbonis had to stave off a pair of match points in the second set. He failed to serve out the match at 5-3; and then wasted two match points on Verdasco’s serve before the Spaniard double-faulted on the third.

Delbonis had previously reached his first ATP World semifinal at Stuttgart in 2011, losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Nadal Wins First Match at Chilean Open in Return to Competitive Tennis

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Rafael Nadal is back in winning form…

The 26-year-old Spanish tennis star defeated Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Chilean Open in his return to competitive tennis after a seven month hiatus due to an injured left knee.

Rafael Nadal

Nadal, ranked No. 1 in the tournament despite his long absence, is hoping to get back into the swing of things before the French Open, where he’ll attempt to win his eighth French Open title.

“For me, Roland Garros (French Open) is light years away,” he said. “All I see is doubles tomorrow and my singles again here on Friday.”

Nadal only won one point on clay in the first two games against Delbonis. But sfter falling behind 0-2, he broke back in the fourth game to tie it at 2-2, racing to chase down several shots in a long rally and showing no fear of re-injuring his knee. He was in control after that, wrapping up the set in 47 minutes.

Nadal breezed through the second set, cheered on by a sellout crowd of 4,500. The temporary stadium for the tournament has been increased by 1,200 seats for fans to see one of the sport’s biggest stars, playing for the first time in Chile.

The former No. 1 again faced questions about his knee after the match, despite saying Tuesday he was tired of talking about it.

“I have to be sure the knee answers well after a long time without playing at the top level of our sport,” he said. “If the recovery goes well and I am able to play week by week at 100 percent, and I am able to practice every day as much as I want — and that happens quick — then we’ll talk about ambitious objectives.”

If not, Nadal said he would have to rethink his game, and probably his knee treatment. So far he has avoided surgery.

“If that doesn’t happen, we’ll talk about different goals,” Nadal said. “Let’s see how things improve in the next couple of months, in the next couple of weeks. Let’s talk in a few weeks, in a few months.”

Nadal said he is playing with some discomfort, and his coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, said it would continue until the end of the month.

Nadal has fallen behind his main rivals — Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray — and now will be scrutinized as he attempts to win his eighth French Open, which starts in late May.