The ninth edition of the Rio de Janeiro Open, the main tennis tournament in Brazil and the only ATP 500 in South America, will be played between February 12 and 20, 2022, after being suspended in 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic. its organizers announced this Thursday.
The clay court tournament that has become traditional for Spanish and Argentine tennis players at the beginning of the season will be played again at the facilities of the Brazilian Jockey Club in Rio de Janeiro, the organization announced in a message on its social networks. “The ‘saudade’ was huge but we are back.
The return of the Rio Open is a great gift for the city of Rio de Janeiro, “said the director of the tournament, Marcia Casz.” The success of vaccination in the country, especially in Rio, brought back the desire to get together , which is part of the Rio soul. This is what will happen in February at the Jockey Club and with all the necessary security of course, “he added.
The Rio Open has been held since 2014 and has hosted several of the tennis players who have been among the top ten in the ATP world rankings, such as Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, John Isner, Marin Cilic, Gael Monfils and Fabio Fognini. In its last edition, in January 2020, the tournament distributed prizes of 1.9 million dollars, of which 355,530 dollars to the winner of the individual title along with the 500 points in the ATP ranking.
The longing is huge, but there’s time to end: the Rio Open is back! The eighth edition of the biggest tennis tournament in South America is confirmed for February 12th to 20th, 2022 at the Jockey Club Brasileiro, in our Rio de Janeiro, the city where the world meets. pic.twitter.com/PdBfH1EYmn
— Rio Open (@RioOpenOficial) October 28, 2021
The winner of the last edition was the Chilean Cristian Garín, who beat the Italian Gianluca Mager in the final – who eliminated the Austrian Dominic Thiem, then fourth in the world – and won the points that allowed him to rise from 25th to 18th place. of the ATP classification. Garín succeeded Serbian Laslo Djere as champion, who won the Rio title in 2019.
The first champion was the Spanish Rafael Nadal (2014), who was followed by the Spanish David Ferrer (2015), the Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas (2016), the Austrian Thiem (2017), the Argentine Diego Schwartzman (2018) and the Serbian Djere (2019).
EFE
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