The parchment Julia Riera21 years old, stands tall as a new Argentine tennis player in the top 100 of the WTA. It was just two seasons ago when the player had to organize a raffle for 2,000 pesos per number to raise funds and be able to travel. Today, with effort, creativity and a lot of training, she enjoys her best moment. She won her most valuable title, the W75 in Chiasso, in Switzerland, by beating Hungarian Anna Bondar 6-3 and 7-6 (7-2) (currently 108th, 50th in 2022 and fourth seeded in the Swiss competition).
After finishing his commitment in the American Zone of the Billie Jean King Cup in Bogotá, Riera traveled to the Old Continent to continue with his calendar and in Chiasso, a competition in the third professional category, on clay and with US$ 60,000 in prizes , had no obstacles. Starting this Monday, Riera will make a valuable jump in the ranking, up to 94th place (+18). In this way, Argentina will once again have three players among the best hundred rackets for the first time since August 2005, when Gisela Dulko (30th), Mariana Díaz Oliva (67th) and Paola Suárez (93rd) were there.
This Monday, in addition to Riera (who in Switzerland was accompanied by Laura Montalvo, 23rd in the ranking in 2001), the top 100 will have Nadia Podoroska from Rosario (66th) and María Lourdes Carlé from Dero (82nd). Riera was born in Pergamino, in the north of the province of Buenos Aires. He grew up one block from a club (Gimnasia y Esgrima), a place he adopted to train himself not only as an athlete but as a person, playing everything and for many hours a day, without limitations and in a healthy, “club” environment. , precisely. He kicked the soccer ball and shot the basketball hoop, as did his mother (Florencia, a physical education teacher) and his father (Antonio -or Tonito-, an accountant by profession and a soccer and basketball player in Sports, another of the clubs in the city). But Julia was more attracted to wielding a tennis racket.
“Tennis seemed fun to me because it was very competitive and I had to figure out everything alone,” she told THE NATION, during an interview last August. The top 100 will give you greater access to tournaments and financial prizes. As the circuit does not stop, this Monday she must appear in Madrid, to compete in the Mutua Madrid Open qualification, against the Italian Sara Errani.
Comesaña, another national racket in the top 100
The Challenger circuit, the second professional category of the tour, crowned the man from Mar del Plata Francisco Comesana. The 23-year-old won the title in Oeiras, Portugal, beating Frenchman Ugo Blanchet 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. For Comesaña it is the fifth Challenger title, but the first in the valuable 125 category (with 148,625 euros in prizes).
By defeating Blanchet (saving three match points), Comesaña celebrated emotionally, collapsing on the brick dust. Why such emotion? He will be top 100 for the first time: he will jump to 96th in the world ranking (+19), a position that, for example, allows him to directly enter the Grand Slams.
The right-handed two-handed backhand player was accompanied by his coach, Sebastián Gutiérrez, who was in Madrid along with his main pupil, Sebastián Báez (19th), and traveled to the Portuguese city for the definition of the Challenger.
This Monday, the top 100 of the ATP will find eight Argentine players: Báez (19th), Francisco Cerúndolo (22nd), Tomás Etcheverry (27th), Mariano Navone (41st), Facundo Díaz Acosta (47th), Federico Coria (83rd), Pedro Cachin (91st) and Comesaña (96th).