For the second straight year, Sebastian Baez of Buenos Aires, Argentina has won the Rio Open. After defeating fellow Argentinian Mariano Navone 6-2, 6-1 in the 2024 Rio Open final, Baez beat Alexandre Muller of France 6-2, 6-3 in the 2025 Rio Open final on Sunday.
With the intense rivalry between Argentina and Brazil, it is interesting that an Argentinian won the Rio Open in 2025, and a Brazilian won the 2025 Argentina Open. Earlier this month, Joao Fonseca of Brazil won his first ATP title in Buenos Aires.
In Rio over the past week, Baez was the fifth seed. Remarkably, he had a pretty simple draw on clay. He did not have to face one single seeded player. However, Baez did lose two sets to unseeded Argentinians. In the second round, Navone beat Baez 6-1 in the second set, before Baez regrouped with a 6-3 win in the deciding set. Then in the semifinals, Baez lost to Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-3 in the first set, before winning the second and third sets by identical scores of 6-1.
In the final against Muller, Baez had the advantage when it came to serving. Baez had three aces and zero double faults and Muller had two aces and three double faults. Baez also broke Muller’s serve five times in 12 opportunities.
Of Baez’s seven ATP titles, only two have been 500 events. Those were the Rio Opens from last year and this year. Baez has also won five 250 point events. They were the 2022 Estoril Open in Portugal, the 2023 Cordoba Open in Argentina, the 2023 Austrian Open, the 2023 Winston-Salem Open in the United States and the 2024 Chile Open.
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