PETE ZIEBRON
Pablo Cuevas won his 2nd ATP title in 15 days - concurrently they are the first 2 titles of his career. Pete Ziebron Images
Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay, is enjoying the month of his career this July. This morning, Cuevas defeated #1 seed Fabio Fognini 6-3 6-4in Umag, Croatia in a semifinal played today because of rain yesterday. This evening, Cuevas topped #2 seed Tommy Robredo by the identical 6-3 6-4 scoreline to win his 2nd ATP tournament in the last 15 days.
Two weeks ago, the 28 year-old Cuevas rolled to his 1st career title in Bastad, Sweden, defeating Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-2 6-1 in the final. Cuevas dropped only 1 set en route to the title and enjoyed a lopsided 66-36 advantage in games won throughout the Bastad event.
This week in Umag, Cuevas entered the tournament ranked 60th in the world and needed to qualify for the main draw. His campaign got underway in sterling fashion as he opened with a double bagel over German Nikolas Walterscheid-Tukic. Following two more wins in qualifying, Cuevas advanced to the main draw but dropped the opening set of his first round match against Mate Delic of Croatia. However, Cuevas steadied his game in the match and would eventually lose only one more set the rest of the way in the tournament. Cuevas won 105 games in total in the event and yielded just 58 to his opponents in the 8 matches he played in Umag, 3 qualifying encounters and 5 contests in the main draw.
Pablo Cuevas arrived in Umag on a 5 match winning streak. He departs with a 13 match unbeaten streak (including the 3 qualifying matches) and will be ranked #40 in the world, a new career high, when the new ATP rankings are posted on Monday morning. One year ago, Cuevas was ranked #488 in the world.
In addition to notching his first 2 ATP titles this month, he has also won 2 Challenger titles and was a finalist in another.
Pablo Cuevas 2014 Titles & Finals:
Umag 250 d. #18 Tommy Robredo ESP
Bastad 250 d. #40 Joao Sousa POR
Mestre Challenger d. Marco Cecchinato ITA
Rome Challenger lost to Julian Reister GER
Barranquilla Challenger d. Martin Klizan SVK
- Going forward, Pablo Cuevas has just 149 points to defend for the rest of 2014. Ironically, he is scheduled to compete in the Liberec Challenger next week in the Czech Republic where he is the #1 seed. Cuevas earned 77,315 Euros for winning in Umag. The winner's check in Liberec is 5,035 Euros.