April 1, 2023, 18:16 PM
April 1, 2023, 18:16 PM
Bolivian tennis players Federico Zeballos and Boris Arias won their first title of the year and their third Challenger Upon leaving Mexico City Open champions after winning the final this Saturday against the Americans Evan King and Reese Stalder (7-5, 5-7 and 10-2).
The best duo in the country reached its third crown in tournaments of this type. The first two were in 2022 at the Blumenau and Campinas Challengers, both in Brazil.
Besides, for Zeballos it means his 35th professional title in doublesWell, apart from the three Challengers, he won 32 Futures.
Arias has 19 doubles crowns in his showcasesof which 15 are Futures.
With this victory, they added 125 points for the ATP ranking and they pocketed $9,350.
“Thank my family, who are the ones who know how hard it is to get to these moments. Thanks to Boris for these years of playing together, we are in search of a dream and we will go step by step. Mexico always treats us incredible, people come to support us, the weather here is beautiful, it is one of the best tournaments they organize at the Challenger level; the truth was a very good week”, said Zeballos during the award ceremony.
Arias thanked his teammate for the understanding on the field of play. “(I thank) Fede, that we have been playing for more than a year to win, so goal achieved. Thank everyone who makes the tournament possible, this championship is one of the best, we love coming to Mexico, they treat us very well, so we are very happy. Thank the people of Bolivia who were present here”.
Federico Zeballos and Boris Arias give each other an emotional hug after winning in Mexico. Photo. Mexico City Open
Since the beginning of the week the national duo competed in the Mexican championship that was played on the fields of the Chapultepec Sports Center.
In the first round they beat the Filipino Rubén Gonzales and the Zimbabwean Benjamin Lock in a tight match.: 7-6(4) and 6-3, in the quarterfinals they gave the tournament bump by eliminating the first seeds: the Swede Andre Goransson and the Japanese Ben McLachlan (4-6, 6-4 and 10-8) .
While in the semifinals they beat the Frenchman Jonathan Eysseric and Davil Pel, from the Netherlands: 7-6(4) and 7-6(9).
the grand finale It was played in the central stadiumhe against the Americans King and Stalder.
It was a pretty even match even though it all ended in the first two sets.
Throughout the match the Bolivians They received support from the Mexican fans.
Zeballos and Arias did not have the expected start when they lost their serve in the first game, but they did the same to the Americans in the next game to equalize the score (1-1).
From that moment on, each one enforced their service until they reached 5-5, as the Bolivians won on their serve and then broke their rivals to win 7-5.
The second set arrived evenly matched until 3-3, but from then on, the Americans broke the Bolivians’ serve twice, which they did once, to win (7-5).
Everything was defined in the third set that it was a match tie break, moment in which heThe national representatives were much more solid to be up 6-0 and finally win 10-2 to give each other a big hug to the applause of the people.
