The professional circuit of tennis Not only did it put first in 2024, but it started with news as bad as it was strong, such as the new injury of Rafael Nadal that left him out of the Australian Open. But there were also smiles. This Sunday the first champions of the season were consecrated and there There were logical results and a couple of surprises. Better to go in parts.
The first surprise was the consecration of Grigor Dimitrov at the ATP 500 in Brisbane. The thing is The Bulgarian won his first tournament since winning the 2017 ATP Finals and he did it after beating the Dane in the final Holger Runefirst seeded and called to be a great protagonist this year, 7-6 and 6-4 in two hours and 19 minutes of the match.
Dimitrov, who began the match as the second seed, took advantage of the only break point that occurred in the match, in the seventh game of the second set. The other eleven, three favorable to Rune and eight to the Bulgarian, ended up being avoided by the servers.
Thus, in the first set, none of them gave in when it came to putting the ball into play. That led to a tie break that went in Dimitrov’s favor as he started 0-3 up with two breaks. Despite this, he needed up to three set points to achieve it.
In the second part of the clash, the third game was a nice battle in which Rune solved after raising three break points against him. He couldn’t do that in the seventh, when he finally gave his serve to a rival who ended up making good on that advantage.
In this way, Dimitrov won his first title since winning the 2017 ATP Finals, in another great surprise. Since then he had played three finals, one in 2018 and two in 2023, which had all ended in defeat.
There were no surprises at the ATP 250 in Hong Kong, which had the Russian as the winner Andrey Rublev. The world number 5 and seed No. 1 beat the Finn in the final on Sunday Emil Ruusuvuori (No. 69) for a double 6-4.
Quarterfinalist at the 2023 Australian Open, Rublev won his 15th career title one week away from the 2024 edition of the first Grand Slam of the season, which will be held in Melbourne.
It is also Rublev’s tenth trophy on cement. Ruusuvuori, 24, is still on his side looking for his first title on the circuit. The Hong Kong final was his second final, after the ATP 250 tournament in Pune, India, in 2022. The Hong Kong tournament made its return to the ATP calendar after more than twenty years of absence.
Rybakina and Gauff too
The other surprise also occurred in Brisbane, but in the women’s tournament. The Kazakh Elena Rybakinafourth seed, was proclaimed WTA 500 champion after beating the Belarusian in the final Aryna Sabalenkasecond favorite, 6-0 and 6-3, in one hour and ten minutes.
In which it meant the reissue of the finals in 2023 of the Australian Open and Indian Wells, two of the most important tournaments of the yearRybakina gave her rival few options. Thus, in the first round, he broke the service of his rival three times and won two of his own to finish it in just 25 minutes.
The streak of consecutive games extended to the initial two of the second set. It was then that Sabalenka broke her opponent’s serve for the first time, although it was a brief reaction as Rybakina responded with a counterbreak to go 1-3. From there to the outcome it was enough for him to keep his serve to win.
“Despite the result, it is difficult to play against you. We always fight on the court and I think that is good. This way we both improve and I hope that continues,” Rybakina said after lifting the trophy, sixth of her career and third on hard surface.
Finally, in another logical result, the American Coco Gauff became champion of the Auckland tournament by defeating the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina by 6-7 (4), 6-3 and 6-3 in two hours and 35 minutes of play.
Gauff, 19 years old and world number 3, retained the title she won in 2023, which bodes well for her performance at the Australian Open, which starts on January 14.