Sebastian Baez wins 2024 Rio Open

Sebastian Baez (Google Images)

Sebastian Baez of Buenos Aires, Argentina won the 2024 Rio Open on Sunday. Baez steamrolled past Argentinian qualifier Mariano Navone 6-2, 6-1 in one hour and 22 minutes.

It was a dominant performance for Baez, the fifth ranked player in Brazil. He won 64 of 103 total points. Baez also had 14 break point opportunities, where he capitalized on six of them.

Baez’s serve was also working. He had the only two aces of the match, never had a double fault, won 68% of the points on his first serve, and 67% of the points on his second serve. Navone, who moved from 113th to 60th in the world rankings, only won 42% of his first serve points, and 44% of his second serve points.

This was Baez’s fifth career ATP title, but first at the 500 point level. He previously won the 2022 Estoril Open in Portugal (beat 2022 United States Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe of Hyattsville, Maryland 6-3, 6-2 in the final), the 2023 Cordoba Open in Argentina (beat Federico Coria of Argentina 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in the final), the 2023 Austrian Open (beat 2020 United States Open champion Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-3, 6-1 in the final), and the 2023 Winston-Salem Open (beat Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3 in the final).

In Rio this past week, Baez beat Corentin Moutet of France 6-4, 6-3 in the first round, Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina 7-6, 6-3 in the second round, Thiago Montiero of Brazil 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals, and the fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina 7-5, 6-0 in the semifinals.

Baez becomes the second Argentinian to ever win the Rio Open. The first was 2020 French Open semifinalist Diego Schwartzman, who beat Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2, 6-3 in 2018.

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