You might never have heard of Christian Garin. And, it\u2019s understandable. He\u2019s from a non-traditional tennis country, Chile, and he\u2019s played a lot more on the Challenger Tour than the ATP Tour. However, it\u2019s time that the world take notice of Garin. Christian Garin has arrived.<\/p>\n
This week has been very impressive for Garin. He is into the final of the ATP 250 event in Sao Paulo, which is a momentous occasion for someone formerly caught up in the web of the ATP Challenger circuit. Garin has had to beat some good players to make it this far. He started off the tournament with a win over Pedro Sousa, a player very adept to clay. He then took on Jaume Munar, who reached the Quarterfinals of both Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, and beat solid clay courters such as Marco Cecchinato, Federico Delbonis, Fabio Fognini, and Leonardo Mayer during the Golden Swing. Garin just beat Leonardo Mayer himself in the previous round, an accomplished, veteran player. In the semifinals he straight setted fellow young gun Casper Ruud 6-4 6-4.<\/p>\n
I understand that the field of the ATP event in Sao Paulo is not particularly strong, but that doesn\u2019t diminish what Garin has accomplished this week. ATP events, no matter the draw, have a certain level of fan support, pressure, points, and money involved that is just not seen at the Challenger level. The stakes are higher. And Garin has risen up to the challenge and has shown tremendous composure. When he was in a final set tiebreak with Munar this week, he could have crumbled. When he went down a set to a veteran like Leonardo Mayer today, he could have crumbled. But, he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
However, the makings of Garin\u2019s rise, he is now at 78 in the live rankings and could rise as high as 60 with a title here, was formulated on the Challenger Tour. It was through trekking around to places such as Campinas Brazil, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Lima, Peru that has laid the building blocks for what Garin is accomplishing this year.<\/p>\n
When Garin made the Final of a Challenger event in Cuernavaca, Mexico in February of last year, before losing in straight sets to Dennis Novikov, it had been a while since Christian had previously enjoyed such a success. Garin had only one Challenger win at that point, and that came in 2016 in a tight win over Guido Andreozzi. But suddenly, despite being on a hard court, Christian was back in a Final.<\/p>\n