By Chris Oddo | Sunday February 21, 2016

 

Pablo Cuevas braved a three and a half hour rain delay and powered past Guido Pella to win the Rio Open.

Photo Source: Rio Open

Pablo Cuevas backed up his upset of Rafael Nadal with another spirited effort on Sunday in the Rio Open final. The Uruguayan claimed his fourth career title with a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4 victory over Argentina’s Guido Pella on another rain-soaked day in Rio.

The match was delayed for three and a half hours with the score tied at 3-3 in the first set. When the players returned Cuevas quickly ran off 13 of 17 points to grab the first set.

Cuevas was strong on serve all day, and he got stronger as the match progressed. The 30-year-old did not drop serve all evening (total of 16 service games) and he only lost two first-serve points in the deciding set.

After Pella stretched the match to three sets by taking the second set tiebreaker the pair marched in lockstep to the business end of the third set.

Pella finally reached deuce in a Cuevas service game (for the first time in the third set) with the Uruguayan serving at four-all, but he couldn’t take it any further. After a brief visit from the trainer during the changeover, Cuevas came out and broke Pella at 15, winning a long rally to close the match in two hours and 16 minutes.

Cuevas improves to 4-1 in ATP finals with the title, and becomes the third 30-plus aged winner on the ATP Tour this year, joining Stan Wawrinka (Chennai) and Victor Estrella Burgos (Quito).

Pella was appearing in his first career final. He entered the tournament with just one victory on the season.