BUENOS AIRES – The tension of dealing with sixth match points to win your first professional title, in the most important tennis stadium in your country, with six thousand people cheering you on, must be incalculable.
Facundo Díaz Acosta lived it and successfully went through it, and he doesn’t realize yet what he achieved. He arrived to the Argentina Open as a Wild Card and ended up “drinking” from the Argentinian mate of the iconic trophy. Something totally unexpected: “I still don’t understand what is going on”.
“I’m going to have to sit down and think about what’s next for the future, because I had planned to play other tournaments, now I can enter other better ones,” said the 23-year-old tennis player after beating Nicolas Jarry 6-3, 6-4. After eliminating Grand Slam champions like Stan Wawrinka and Carlos Alcaraz, the Chilean came as close to the title as his grandfather did in the late 70’s. Jaime Fillol lost two finals at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club to Guillermo Vilas.
The Argentinean says he looks at the list of Argentina Open champions and cannot believe the group he now belongs to. To name a few contemporary tennis players: Rafael Nadal, Alcaraz, Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Ferrer, Gustavo Kuerten, Dominic Thiem.
The title in Buenos Aires means for Diaz Acosta a big step in the Olympic journey he has been traveling for years. In September, by playing (and winning) the Pan American Games Santiago 2023, he partially obtained his right to be in Paris 2024. The condition is that he must be among the best four tennis players of his country, and the points obtained in the week of his first professional title put him in that position. This Monday he will appear in the 59th place of the ranking.
Díaz Acosta highlighted the importance of the match he won in Santiago, with the whole crowd against him. That moment appeared in key moments of the final at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club: “I tried to think about the final of the Pan American Games, where I had the whole crowd against me. That was a very important match mentally”.
He had already won medals at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires 2018 and at the South American Games in Asuncion 2022. His desire to make it to Paris 2024 is on the right track.
