Guido Pella cracked his lethal forehand down the line for a clean and unplayable winner and dropped to his knees, almost in disbelief. Finally, it was over. The Argentine earned his first career title—and snapped a string of four losses in ATP finals—with a 7-5 6-3 win over first-time finalist Christian Garin at the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo.
“I didn't know what to say, what to think,” Pella said, according to ATPWorldTour.com. “It was a very emotional moment for me. I'm not used to crying a lot and today was unbelievable."
Pella completes the Golden Swing with an 11-3 record after he reached the final at Cordoba, the semi-final at Buenos Aires and fell in the first round at Rio.
He saved his best, most timely tennis for the final week of the month-long swing through South America--he didn't drop a set all week in Sao Paulo.
The 28-year-old World No.48 was a set and break up on Juan Ignacio Londero in Cordoba but couldn’t finish off the victory.
Pella had previously lost finals at Rio (2016), Munich (2017) and Umag (2018).
On Sunday he saved six of seven break points and converted four times on seven opportunities to stop the 22-year-old Chilean.
"After Cordoba I was devastated because I lost that final," an emotional Pella told the ATP.
The Argentine will rise to a career-high 34 in Monday’s rankings, while Garin is projected to arrive at a career-high ranking of around 72 on Monday.
Pella saved a break point at 2-1 in the second set and held serve the rest of the way, eventually adding a second break to close out the victory.