Camilo Ugo Carabelli is the champion of the AAT Challenger Santander from Villa María. The Argentine won in three sets against the Dutchman Jesper de Jongby 7-6 (3), 3-6 and 6-4, and thus obtained his seventh title in this category in a packed Sport Social Club. After a week with mixed feelings and in which he went from less to more, the 25-year-old Buenos Aires native celebrated with his loved ones, who traveled to the Mediterranean province to accompany him. The match was an electrocardiogram and both had moments of dominance over the opponent, but The local team stomped at the closing and sealed the victory with a superlative level.
The first set perfectly showed the parity between the contenders for the title of the most important tournament in history organized by the Argentine Tennis Association. After a couple of breaks on each side, the tie break fell to the Buenos Aires native, who won 7-3 with two mini breaks. Already in the second, the European imposed his game and, with the same solidity as in the semifinal against Romanian Burruchagastayed with the rival service on two occasions to close 6-3. The third and final match began with a clear advantage for the champion after two service breaks. But the Dutchman sold the defeat dearly and stretched his actions until Cami resumed his performance to close with a 6-4.
Camilo arrived at the last match of the competition after having left Renzo Olivo, the Paraguayan Daniel Vallego, the Brazilian Pedro Sakamoto and the Juan Manuel Cerúndolo. In those four matches, he had only given up one set and reached the final with the arrow up to win his third challenger of the year. After the duel that put him in the definition on Sunday, the same player acknowledged that he was not expecting such an even performance during the week.
“When the tournament started I couldn’t imagine being here. I wasn’t feeling very well, I had a lot of problems off the court. You have to be very knowledgeable about everything and I work with psychologists.. I’m not the only one this happens to. I rely a lot on my family, friends, my girlfriend and getting out of the routine. It adds a lot that they are tournaments close to home, it is a plus to always be accompanied,” he had declared on Saturday after the victory against the youngest of the Cerúndolo brothers.
For his part, De Jong was undoubtedly a well-deserved finalist in the competition and by reaching the final he was among the 100 best tennis players in the world today. In his five matches, he had to face three of the eight seeds and his tennis gave his rivals no margin, until Sunday’s final. The one born 32 kilometers from Amsterdam eliminated Juan Bautista Torresto the American Tristan Boyer, the Bolivian Hugo Dellien and Román Burruchaga. Like Cami, he had only given up one set in his previous encounters and came after a Saturday in which he himself felt that he performed at a superlative level.
“It is one of those games that you play with luck two or three times a year if you are lucky and today was one of those days“, he had said after winning 6-2 and 6-3 against the son of Jorge Burruchaga, world champion with the Argentine team in Mexico 1986.
The year did not end this Sunday for the two protagonists. Camilo will continue his participation in the South American tour that began a month ago in Cali and what is planned seven other tournaments distributed between Brazil, Uruguay, Peru and Chile. The next stop of the ATP Challenger Tour will be in Campinas (Brazil), contest that distributes 133 thousand dollars in prizes and grants 100 points to the winner for the world ranking. On the side of the now top 100 on the planet, the transfer will be to the Old Continent, where an important section of the indoor competitions take place.
