Guido Pella’s dream week continued on Saturday, as the world number 71 advanced to his first ATP World Tour final, upsetting fifth seed Dominic Thiem, who was coming off a clay court title last week in Buenos Aires and an upset victory over defending champion David Ferrer. Pella only needed an hour and 13 minutes to claim the 6-1, 6-4 victory in the semifinals of the Rio Open.
Pella Comes Out Firing
Despite being the massive underdog against the Buenos Aires champion, Pella came out firing in his semifinal, dominating the opening set. The Argentinian who was contesting his first ever ATP World Tour semifinal, dominated on serve in the opening set, only losing six points on serve in the entire set, only three of which were on his first set. Almost all of those points came in a single game, when Thiem held five break points. But Pella stood tall and saved all of them.
The fifth seed’s inability to break his opponent’s serve was costly, as his own serve was disastrous in the opener. Thiem was broken three times in the opening set out of four service games, and struggled to even win points on his own serve. He only managed to win 12 of 29 points on his own serve, well below 50 percent on both his first and second serves. It did not take Pella long to claim the opening set 6-1, and close to within one set of his first ATP World Tour final.
Late Break Sends Pella Into First Final
Pella’s momentum appeared to carry over to the second set, when the Argentinian had a handful of break point opportunities in the early stages of the second set. But at long last, Thiem was up to the challenge and managed to save all three break points. Thiem proceeded to raise his level on serve, keeping Pella at bay for much of the remainder of the set.
However, the young Austrian still was having no success on his opponent’s serve. Pella did not allow Thiem a single break point in the entire second set, only losing seven points in total on his own serve. As the set progressed, Thiem appeared to be wearing out, as more and more unforced errors crept into his game. Serving to stay in the match at 4-5, he struggled to keep up with Pella in the rallies and found himself down 15-40, double match point. He saved the first when Pella drove a return long. But on the following point, Thiem completely ran out of gas and double faulted, gifting the match to his opponent.
By the Numbers
Pella was fantastic on serve, winning 80 percent of his first serve points and saving all five break points he faced. His return was phenomenal too, as he fell just shy of winning 50 percent of points on Thiem’s serve, although he limited his Austrian opponent to 55 percent of his first serve points and 45 percent of his second serve points. Thiem actually had more winners than Pella, 15 to 14. However, he also had considerably more unforced errors too, 21 to Pella’s 13.
Pella, age 25, who had never reached a main tour semifinal before this week, will contest his first career tour-level final on Sunday. He awaits the winner of the other semifinal between Pablo Cuevas and top seed Rafael Nadal.