[48] Guido Pella (ARG) vs. [92] Christian Garin (CHI)
For four consecutive years Pella has gotten to a final only to walk away empty handed. Today he wanted to change that statistic. The odds were heavily in his favor as his opponent, Garin, was a first-time finalist and only twenty-two years old. However, fresh in Pella’s memory was a recent loss to a first-time finalist, Juan Ignacio Londero. Thus, he had to be feeling a tad nervous, but perhaps having faced Garin before and winning all three encounters he was less nervous.
FIRST SET NERVES FOR BOTH
Garin served first and it was a nervous start; however, he worked through the nerves with a little help from his opponent and held his serve. Pella struggled with the tension as well; he had to fight off two break points in his second service game. Pella was 5-4 up and serving for the set and went down 0-40; Garin got a little help from the net cord and he broke back to even the match 5-5. Yet, his moment of celebration was short-lived as Pella broke right back. Two careless errors from the Chilean into the net and two forehands long gave the game back to his opponent. This time, Pella make no mistake in securing the first set.
MOMENTUM SHIFTED TO THE VETERAN
Once Pella secured the first set, he relaxed and played some of his best tennis of the match. Conversely, Garin got tighter and dropped his first service game of the second set. The Chilean further compounded the situation when he served to stay in the match at 3-5 down. Perhaps Pella was determined this time around not to collapse under the pressure; however, we will never know because Garin lost his serve for the second time to give the match to Pella. Pella did not have to serve it out and he won 7-5, 6-3 with a forehand winner down the line. The Argentinian captured his first career singles ATP Tour title and will get to a career high on Monday. There were tears of joy for Pella and why not, the monkey was off his back.
SOURCE OF MAIN IMAGE: Zimbio.com (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images Europe-Guido Pella)
