TALLAHASSEE, April 29, 2019

The Tallahassee Tennis Challenger crowned its 2019 champion on Sunday afternoon with Emilio Gomez defeating Tommy Paul 6-2, 6-2 in the championship match. In the singles final, Gomez and Paul squared off the first time in their careers.

Paul, fresh off a title at the Sarasota Open was looking to pick up a third career title, but Gomez had different plans. In the first set, Gomez took the early break and consolidated it to take 3-0 lead. Paul broke back, but it was too late as the Ecuadorian broke twice more to take the opening set 6-2. The story was much the same in the second set with Paul struggling to hold serve. The 27-year-old closed out the match with a final score of 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and nine minutes.

Welcome to the winners’ circle, @emiliogomez91!

The 🇪🇨 captures his maiden #ATPChallenger title, dropping one set all week to take the 🏆 at @TallyChallenger pic.twitter.com/9BkVpE6CIW

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) 28. April 2019

With the win, Gomez picks up the first ATP Challenger Tour singles title of his career. This was his second final after he made the championship match of a challenger event in Monterrey, Mexico earlier this month.

“I felt really good during the whole week and to come and play the final and play the best match of the whole week, it was just an amazing feeling,” said Gomez. “I have worked so hard for this.”

In the doubles final, the No. 4 seeds of Roberto Maytin of Venezuela and Fernando Romboli from Brazil defeated the US-American duo of Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Noah Rubin 6-2, 4-6, 10-7. This is Maytin and Romboli’s third doubles title together and first of 2019.

Next up, the USTA Pro Circuit heads to Savannah, GA for the St. Joseph’s/Candler (SJ/C) Savannah Challenger. The SJ/C Savannah Challenger is a USTA Pro Circuit and ATP Challenger 80 event that is held at The Landings Club, April 29-May 5. Professional athletes from around the world and will be competing for prize money, as well as ATP World Tour Ranking points with the winner receiving 80 points. Both Paul and Gomez are expected to compete at the tournament and the wild card into the French Open will also be awarded at the completion of the week