Sebastian Baez won his first ATP 500 title after defeating Mariano Navone in the final of the tournament in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

Sebastian Baez, ATP Rio de Janeiro champion

The final between the two Argentines lasted an hour and 23 minutes and ended with a score of 6-2, 6-1 in favor of Baez (23 years old).

Favorite for 5 events, Sebastian also beat Corentin Muteta (140 ATP), Facundo Diaz Acosta (52 ATP), Thiago Monteiro (102 ATP) and Francisco Cerundolo (20 ATP) in Brazil.

The Argentine has four more ATP 250 titles to his credit: Estoril (2022), Córdoba, Kitzbühel and Winston-Salem (2023).

Thanks to the triumph in Rio de Janeiro, Sebastian Baez rose to the 21st place in the ATP ranking (the best ranking in his career). Instead, Navon ranks 60th (a jump of 53 positions).

Baez was a finalist on the 2018 Roland Garros Junior Tour and was the world leader in that category.

Navone reached the final in Rio from qualification. The only person who managed to achieve this result at the “ATP 500” tournament is Jiri Veseli (Dubai, 2022).

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The tournament in Rio de Janeiro was part of the ATP 500 category, offered a total of $2,100,230 in prize money, was held on clay, and the last champion was Diego Schwartzman (2018).