TUNIS/STARNBERG, May 22, 2022
Roberto Carballes Baena has claimed his ninth ATP Challenger Tour career title by winning the 2022 Tunis Open by KIA. The No. 2 seed of the $53,120 clay-court event hosted by the Tennis Club de Tunis cruised past Gijs Brouwer from the Netherlands 6-1, 6-1 in Saturday’s singles final.
The World No. 102 only dropped one set en route to the championship match in the first round against Italian Raul Brancaccio followed by straight-set wins over fellow Spaniard Eduard Esteve Lobato, Michael Geerts from Belgium and No. 7 seed Zhizhen Zhang of China.
Carballes Baena was in total control of the title match. The 29-year-old Tenerife native capitalized on six of his eight break-point chances and won 68 per cent of the total points played to seal victory in only 56 minutes.
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“I am very happy. It was a great week,” Carballes Baena said. “I played very well yesterday and today. It has been my first time here and everything was very nice. The hotel, the club and the courts are very good. It was a bit hot but it was a very good tournament. Winning the event was the best moment.”
By lifting his first trophy since the Serbia Open in Belgrade in April last year, Carballes Baena pocketed $7,200 in prize money as well as 80 ATP Ranking points and is well prepared for the clay-court climax at Roland-Garros, where he will face Oscar Otte from Germany in the first round.
“I will travel to Paris this afternoon. I will try to keep going like this and continue playing like today,” the Iberian said.
Barrientos/Reyes-Varela win doubles title
In other action, Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia and Miguel Reyes-Varela from Mexico continued their great run of form by winning the doubles title. The No. 2 seed, who triumphed at last week’s NECKARCUP in Heilbronn, fought past the tournament’s top seeds Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler from Austria 6-7(3), 6-3, 11-9. The encounter lasted one hour and 37 minutes.
Barrientos and Reyes-Varela captured their fourth team title. They split $3,100 in prize money and earned 80 ATP Doubles Ranking points.
🏆 x 4⃣
There’s no stopping @nicobg15 & @micky_rv! The 🇨🇴🇲🇽 duo claim their FOURTH title together in 2022.
Champions in Tunis 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Xu3ovH3xtX
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 21, 2022
