Chile's Garin beats Italy's Mager in ATP Rio final

Rio de Janeiro - Chilean third seed Cristian Garin stretched his win streak to 10 matches with two victories on Sunday, including a 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 triumph over Italy's Gianluca Mager in the ATP Rio Open final.

It was the second title in a row for Garin, who lifted the trophy two weeks ago at Cordoba, and the fourth of his career after the 23-year-old South American took crowns last year at Munich and Houston.

Garin topped Croatian fifth seed Borna Coric 6-4, 7-5 in an early Sunday finish of their rain-halted semi-final to advance on the Brazil clay while Mager outlasted Hungarian lucky loser Attila Balazs 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-6 (7/2) in the other Sunday semi finish.

Giant-killer Mager upset Australian Open runner-up and 2017 Rio champion Dominic Thiem, the world number four from Austria, in the quarter-finals.

Mager, a 128th-ranked qualifier playing in only his ninth career tour-level match, made the final by winning a rematch with 106th-ranked Balazs, whom he also beat in 6-0, 6-2 in the final round of qualifying.

Garin, ranked a career-best 25th this week, is set to crack the top 20 on Monday.

A FOURTH clay court title in 11 months ??

Take a bow, @Garin_Cris!#RioOpen pic.twitter.com/TNREnAlcgP

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 23, 2020