Andrea Collarini (292nd) became champion of the AAT Challenger in Santa Fe this Sunday after defeating Facundo Mena (333rd) in a final held at the Lawn Tennis in the provincial capital.
The New York native beat the Temperley native 6-2, 6-3 after one hour and 20 minutes of play on a central court that had a good crowd at noon in Santa Fe.
On a pleasant day on the waterfront of the provincial capital, Collarini clearly won against the native of Temperley and was left with the 50 ATP points awarded by the competition.
After an irregular start in which Mena broke his serve in the first game, Collarini found his best tennis and managed to level the score. Until he achieved two key breaks in the sixth and eighth games that gave him the first set.
In the second, the 32-year-old left-hander maintained his good level, took advantage of his rival’s mistakes and comfortably took the set 6-2. The moment of celebration arrived for Collarini who celebrated it with his wife and his little daughter.
Collarini had just been the champion of the last Challenger in the country, which was in Tucumán in April, and stretched his streak in Argentina to 12 victories and one defeat in 2024. With this result, whoever was 177th in the world will climb to the position 254 in the ATP ranking.
Despite the defeat, Mena, 31, closes a great week in Santa Fe where he reached the fifth Challenger final, the first in the country. The last one had been in Cali, Colombia, in June 2022.
This Saturday he had fallen in the doubles final along with the Uruguayan Ignacio Carou against the American Trey Hilderbrand and the Lebanese Hadi Habib by 6-7 (5), 6-2 and 10-4.
