Gijón, Oct. 11 (EFE).- Spaniard Nicolás Álvarez Varona (21) claimed his first victory in an ATP Finals draw on Tuesday by winning the Gijón Open 250 by two sets to one against the Argentinian Marco Trungelliti ( 1 -6, 6-3 and 6-0) in the match played at the Palacio de Deportes La Guía of the Asturian city, where the competition takes place until next Sunday 16.
The duel between the two players from the previous phase and occupying tight positions in the ATP ranking, in which the player from Burgos is ranked 231st and the player from Buenos Aires is ranked 241st, required a third set in which the Spaniard was the absolute dominator by winning. by six games to nil.
The Argentinian scored the first set (6-1) in just half an hour of play, with two loss of service from the Castilian-Leonese, who in the second set led Trungelliti to commit a loss of service (3-5 ), decisive for Álvarez Varona to chain four consecutive games which allowed him to equalize the match at one set (6-3) and force the tiebreaker.
Thus, in the third set, with the Argentinian hampered by three losses of service in extra time, a circumstance that did not favor him, the Spaniard settled the match with an indisputable 6-0.
In the second round, where he will face the American Tommy Paul (30), Álvarez Varona, who knows he is the “new” or the “candidate”, will try to “annoy him as much as possible and will try to surprise” . “against a rival that he is “settled and played very well”.
He explained that the Argentinian tennis player started “quite loosely” and pressed him quite a bit both with the serve and with the rest, which made it difficult for him to win his own serves while the adversary granted his own.
“In just 15 minutes it was 4-0, so I knew it was time to gain some feeling bit by bit to try to come back in the second set and that was it,” said Álvarez Varona.
“These are the days that all tennis players keep for us, the first ATP point, the first professional title or the first victory in a final four like this, which came quite quickly”, assured the player of Burgos, who has already remembered that this is his third ATP, having managed to pass the previous round in two, although in Barcelona he lost in the first round, although with “good feelings”.
Nicolás Álvarez Varona underlined the “chance” that Spain has to stand out in sport, “especially” in tennis, where it is “little by little” looking for its place among the best, having fun, which is the most important”, with references like Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, with whom he spent part of his career, which allows him to see “how far we can go”.
“If he can, why not me?” Concluded the man from Burgos.