For Facundo Díaz Acosta, it’s time to enjoy and dream at the same time. The left-handed man from La Lucila became the first finalist of the Argentina Open by defeating Federico Coria 6-2 and 6-3 in an Argentine semifinal, in one hour and 24 minutes of action. Díaz Acosta is hours away from the most important final of his career, from going in search of his first ATP title, from achieving a fundamental event. The fact of being in his first grand final is already very valuable, a transcendent achievement. But, of course, there is still one more step left, in the definition this Sunday, at 4 p.m., on the central court of the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club, against the Chilean Nicolás Jarry, who made the big impact by eliminating the top favorite, Carlos Alcaraz.
Díaz Acosta, ranked 87th in the ranking this week, made the most of the invitation that the tournament organization extended to him from the first moment the tournament was presented. He gave a warning that something interesting could happen last week, when he reached the quarterfinals in Córdoba. Already in Buenos Aires, he showed himself in great shape, to the point that reaches the definition without having given up sets along the waywith victories over the German Daniel Altmaier, Francisco Cerúndolo, the Serbian Dusan Lajovic, and Coria, his victim on Saturday afternoon.
And the player from Rosario started better, quickly taking a 2-0 lead. A mirage. Díaz Acosta got into the game and built the comeback with patience and elaboration to undermine the Rosario’s consistency. With drops to change the pace and get him out of the safety of the bottom, to punish with a backhand or forehand every time the opponent played short, and with the first serve as a decisive factor to start unbalancing, and a collection of winning shots. Thus they took the first set in 44 minutes and added seven games in a row to 6-2 and 1-0.
Coria shouted out the partial 1-1 score in the second set. The man from Rosario searched and probed in search of some element to try to even out the development. He managed to be within striking distance of the count. But the imbalance came in the eighth game. Coria had a discreet service game, and delivered his serve with a backhand into the net. Next, Díaz Acosta sentenced in the second match-point, with a winning serve. Arms to the sky and a standing ovation for the left-hander who visited the center court in 2018, when he won the silver medal in singles and the gold medal in doubles at the Youth Olympic Games. The one who fought against a mattress during the shadows of the pandemic. The one who, with this triumph, secures entry to Grand Slams and is also getting closer to the Olympic dream, for which he built a foundation last year, with the Pan American gold. The one who, he says, “as a kid, came for many years to watch the tournament with his notebook to ask for autographs and now being here… is a privilege.”
“It’s incredible to play with all these people. I know how hard it is to come here, so thank you for making the effort, I’m very happy. These are days of many first times. My first ATP quarterfinal in Córdoba, and here, my first semifinal, my first final. It’s a dream. But it is true that I also dreamed of it, because it is always a goal to be in a final and even more so in Buenos Aires,” highlighted the left-hander.
“I knew there was going to be a lot of nerves, so I had to be very patient, be calm, not rush, and not get desperate if I missed something easy. I think I was able to handle my nerves well. We have been working on the mental part for a couple of years, and little by little it is giving results,” said Díaz Acosta. And then he revealed: “We trained with Alcaraz (this year) in Australia, he had also done it at the US Open. We played against Nico (Jarry) a couple of times, so we already know each other. May the best win and I will be at full strength to play against either of them.”
In his first ATP final, Díaz Acosta will seek to follow in the footsteps of Guillermo Coria (2004), Gastón Gaudio (2005), Juan Mónaco (2007), David Nalbandian (2008) and Diego Schwartzman (2021), those who managed to celebrate in the Cathedral in this century. Nicolás Jarry (21) awaits him, who in the other semifinal beat Alcaraz 7-6 (7-2) and 6-3. A more exalted rival, because to try to achieve glory on the Guillermo Vilas court, we will have to show off in a big way. Meanwhile, Díaz Acosta dreams. He more than earned it.
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