Rio Open: Monteiro treats home crowd to win in third-set tiebreak

Brazil’s own Thiago Monteiro edged out Facundo Diaz Acosta 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) in round one of the Rio Open at the Jockey Club Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night.

After they split the first two sets, the third was an atypical clay-court battle in which the servers completely dominated. There was only one break point, which Diaz Acosta saved to hold for 1-0. However, the Argentine wore down physically toward the end — seemingly dealing with a calf cramp.

With his opponent struggling, Monteiro dominated the decisive tiebreak to triumph after two hours and 39 minutes.

“I have been having tough losses, some 7-6 in the third, so today I could manage to win,” Monteiro said during his on-court interview. “[There is] no place I’d rather do it than here, so I’m really happy with this win, this victory. Facundo is an amazing player, (so) I knew it would be a great battle.”

Monteiro, ranked No 99, will next face the winner of the match between third-seeded Chilean Alejandro Tabilo and qualifier Chun-Hsin Tseng.

Rio de Janeiro ATP 500, other first-round results:

• Joao Fonseca vs. Alexandre Muller
• Pedro Martinez Portero vs. Camilo Ugo Carabelli
• Alexander Zverev vs. Yunchaokete Bu
• Tomas Barrios Vera vs. Jaime Faria
• Mariano Navone vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Hugo Gaston
• Dusan Lajovic vs. Damir Dzumhur
• Sebastian Baez vs. Sumit Nagal
• Corentin Moutet vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
• Luciano Darderi vs. Hugo Dellien
• Jaume Munar vs. Thiago Seyboth Wild
• Chun-Hsin Tseng vs. Alejandro Tabilo
• Gustavo Heide vs. Francisco Comesana:
• Nicolas Jarry (6) beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo (Q): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Alexander Shevchenko beat Felipe Meligeni Alves (WC): 6-4, 6-2

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