Rio (Reuters)
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest player to win a 500-point ATP title, defeating Diego Schwartzman in the final of the Rio Open.
This is Alcaraz’s second title after winning the Croatian Open last year, but he became the youngest player to win the 500-point championship in the ATP tournament since its inception in 2009, with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Argentine 13th seed Schwartzman.
After the victory, Alcaraz said: I honestly don’t believe it. This is a great week to play at the highest levels.
“This is my first clay tournament in a long time, so I’m really happy with the performance over the whole week,” he added. I’m feeling amazing right now.
Alcaraz, who won the ATP Finals in 2021, entered the final of the Rio tournament, having to play the quarter-finals and semi-finals on Saturday after matches were postponed due to rain in the previous days.
Alcaraz beat first-ranked Matteo Bertini, ranked sixth in the world, and then beat another Italian, Fabio Fognini, ranked among the top ten former players, and jumped to the 20th place in the best position in his career with the announcement of the new classification on Monday.