Alexandre Muller reaches maiden 500 final in Rio

Alexandre Muller defeated Francisco Comesana on Saturday to become the first French finalist at the Rio Open, 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-3, in two hours and 54 minutes. 

“There is one more match,” he said. “But I’m grateful to be the first French player through to the final in Rio.” 

Muller, into his second final of 2025, will bid for his second title of the young season when he meets defending champion Sebastian Baez in Sunday’s final. 

The 28-year-old is the second ATP player to reach multiple finals in 2025, along with Felix Auger-Aliassime. 

In a battle of first-time ATP 500 semifinalists, 60th-ranked Muller fought through a physical contest to reach his third ATP final. He hit 28 winners against 36 unforced errors and broke serve five times from ten opportunities. 

Comesana, who rallied from 4-1 down in the final set to defeat top-seeded Alexander Zverev on Friday, spent nine hours and six minutes reaching the final four, and saved a match point against Nicolas Jarry in the round of 16 before notching his biggest career win over Zverev in the quarters. 

A close encounter

The 24-year-old world No 86 fought well against Muller, rallying from a break down twice in the opening set, but couldn’t get over the hump as the Frenchman won two extended games to close out the set. 

Back-to-back double-faults gave Comesana a second break point in the sixth game of the second set and he took advantage, forcing a backhand error with a booming inside-out return to lead 4-2. 

The theme of Comesana being unable to keep his momentum prevailed, however, as the Argentine made three forehand errors in the next game to allow Muller to break back for 3-4. 

There was a wild point in the eighth game that left Comesana hanging on the wrong side of the net, but he picked himself and finished off the set in the tiebreak as he reeled off the first four points and the final three points to take it 7-3 and force another third set. 

“I think it was tough for him, too,” Muller said. “I really wanted to be in the final so I was fighting for every point. Tonight was for me, maybe next time will be for him.” 

In the third set both players held serve until Muller finally broke through in the eighth game. He then served out the match to 15, a moment well-achieved for the Frenchman who has been on the rise in 2025. 

Muller is up to a career-high No.41 in the live rankings. 

Earlier in the tournament, the Frenchman won against Brazilian Joao Fonseca (6-1, 7-6 (4)), Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry, the No 8 seed (7-5, 7-6 (5)) and Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo, the No 4 seed (7-5, 6-1).

Comesana, ranked No 86, beat Brazilian wildcard Gustavo Heide (7-6 (2), 6-7 (7), 6-3), Chilean Nicolas Jarry, the No 6 seed (7-6 (4), 6-7 (1), 7-6 (6)) and German Alexander Zverev, the top seed (4-6, 6-3, 6-4) in the previous rounds of the Rio tournament.

Rio de Janeiro ATP 500, other semi-final result (Jockey Club Brasileiro, clay, USD 2.396.115):

• Sebastian Baez beat Camilo Ugo Carabelli (LL): 3-6, 6-1, 6-1

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