Juan Ignacio Londero hadn’t won a tour-level match before playing at the Cordoba Open. But on Sunday, the 25-year-old Argentine beat compatriot Guido Pella to win his first ATP Tour title. Londero spoke with ATPTour.com about the surprise milestone.

You’ve won your first ATP Tour title in your home country. What does that mean to you?
The truth is that I do not know what to tell you. It is an incredible feeling, for sure, and I did not expect to win the tournament. I came hoping to win one, two matches, even though I felt I was on a very good level. I knew I was training well, winning practice sets… It’s really something that I will never forget.

At the age of 25, did you ever imagine winning your first ATP Tour title?
I saw Schwartzman, Fognini, Carreno Busta [walking around]… Having played so few ATP tournaments, I did not know if I would be able to win against them. But I loved the challenge. I really wanted to come to the tournament and measure myself against players I had never faced.

I’ll speak from the heart: I never expected to win a tournament, not even close. Never thought about it. But I knew I could reach a semi-final, a few quarter-finals maybe. The truth is that I had doubts, but it is not that [the title] fell from the sky: I have done a great job. I have been playing very well and working hard and I showed it all this week. I lost a single set, played with great players and it was not a coincidence that I have this result. But still I did not expect it.

Is it extra special with family and friends to be here watching you win your first ATP Tour title?
Very special having won the tournament here, in Cordoba, in the first edition of the tournament. But only today I could start looking at the people on court to see them. Before I did not look at anybody, I did not want to look in order stay focused.

I just looked at my coach, at my team… At first, I enjoyed very little because I had tremendous nerves. But focusing was the key all week. Yesterday we went to have dinner, the day before the final, and it was my coach, my manager and me, the three of us alone. I was focused on what I had to do, and nobody else came. But it’s amazing. I can win any other tournament in my life but none will be like this, trust me.

How were you feeling going into your first ATP Tour final against your countryman who was playing in his fourth final and was the favourite?
I was very nervous before the match… I could not even speak before entering. My physical trainer said to look at him before the match and to be calm, to try to let it go. It was the match that I enjoyed the most from the start. I knew that Guido had experience, but the audience helped me too.

Londero enjoyed home support all week in Cordoba. Photo: Córdoba Open / A. Del Bosco

You came into the tournament having never won a tour-level match. Are you surprised to win the title in your first tournament?
It was an incredible emotion just to win my first ATP main draw match against Nicolas Jarry, a great player who plays very well. The matches were going on and I wanted more, Gringo (my coach) was talking about believing in me, that I was close. He told me to trust myself, that I could do it. I outplayed them all, and I never believed or trusted in myself too much. He was behind me, talking to me and today it came real.

You did not lose a set en route to the final. What part of your game were you most happy with?
That’s the confidence I had. I was able to do things well on the court and knew that it was possible. It confirms that I am at a great level, and little by little I believe more and more that this success will continue.

Read More: Londero On Dream Run: “It’s All Very Crazy”

You are now into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings for the first time, at No. 69 from No. 112. How does it feel to be in the Top 100?
Incredible, it is a very difficult question. I am very emotional. You have to understand that I came to try to play this tournament to see if I could win a round and that way I could be closer to defending the 130 points I had. I knew I had minimal chance of entering the Roland Garros main draw, but now I’m in. Now the new ATP Ranking will appear and I cannot explain it. I will look at it several times to believe it.

Now that you are in the Top 100 and have captured your first ATP Tour title, what are your goals for the rest of 2019?
It is very crazy, everything that happened to me in this tournament, and I will take everything week by week. First I must think why everything this week happened, and then set new goals for the rest of the year… This is a big step for my motivation. Nowadays I am a player who is going forward, and I want to continue like this.

Is there anyone you would like to thank for helping you get to this level in your career?
To all my team, of course, for those who have supported me for a long time, to Gringo, Agus, Roberto, the SportsLab team, my psychologist, my Yoga teacher that I started working with this year and the families that helped me. To all of them, thank you very much.

No. 36 Pierre-Hugues Herbert, +8
Pierre-Hugues Herbert reached his third ATP World Tour singles final at the Open Sud de France, dropping just one set en route to the championship match. The seventh seed, who also finished as runner-up in Winston Salem in 2015 and Shenzhen last year, defeated Denis Shapovalov and Tomas Berdych in back-to-back matches, before falling to countryman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final. With an 8-3 record this season, Herbert rises eight places to a career-high No. 36 in the ATP Rankings.

Herbert’s strong start to the 2019 ATP Tour season has been inspired by doubles success. The 27-year-old captured titles in Doha (w/Goffin) and at the Australian Open (w/Mahut) last month. By defeating Henri Kontinen and John Peers in the Australian Open final, Herbert and Mahut became the eighth doubles team in history to complete the Career Grand Slam.

Read More: Herbert/Mahut Complete Career Grand Slam With Title At Australian Open

No. 38 Marton Fucsovics, +9
After opening the 2019 ATP Tour season with a 3-3 record, Marton Fucsovics advanced to his second tour-level championship match at the Sofia Open. The 27-year-old Hungarian, who lifted his maiden ATP Tour trophy last year in Geneva (d. Gojowczyk), defeated eighth seed Andreas Seppi in straight sets before three-set wins over Yannick Maden and Matteo Berrettini to reach the final. Fucsovics jumps nine spots to No. 38 in the ATP Rankings, just three places shy of his career-high No. 35 position achieved on January 7.

No. 59 Tomas Berdych, +20
Tomas Berdych continued his strong return to the ATP Tour in Montpellier. After missing six months of the 2018 ATP Tour season due to a back injury, the Czech improved to 10-3 this year with a run to the Open Sud de France semi-finals (l. to Herbert). The former World No. 4 built on his runner-up finish in Doha (l. to Bautista Agut) and fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open (l. to Nadal), with victories against Matthias Bachinger, Benoit Paire and Filip Krajinovic. Berdych soars 20 positions to No. 59 in the ATP Rankings.

No. 69 Juan Ignacio Londero, +43
On his tour-level main draw debut at the Cordoba Open this week, Juan Ignacio Londero stunned the field by claiming his maiden ATP Tour title. The Argentine wild card did not drop a set en route to the final, before rallying fron a set and a break down to beat countryman Guido Pella in the championship match. Londero leaps 43 places to a career-high No. 69 in the ATP Rankings.

Read More: Londero’s Dream Week: From Winless To ATP Titlist

Other Notable Top 100 Movers This Week
No. 46 Matteo Berrettini, +7
No. 50 Guido Pella, +9
No. 57 Aljaz Bedene, +8
No. 64 Federico Delbonis, +13
No. 78 Pablo Cuevas, +14
No. 79 Radu Albot, +11
No. 89 Reilly Opelka, +9

Talk about a fairytale finish. It doesn’t get much better than this for Mitchell Krueger.

Krueger captured his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title on Sunday at his hometown RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas. In front of his family and friends, the nearby Fort Worth native produced a dramatic display to raise the trophy. He rallied from a set and a break down to outlast Mackenzie McDonald 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-1 after two hours and three minutes. 

The victory carried added signficance, considering Krueger was born and raised in the Dallas area and trained at T Bar M Racquet Club since he was nearly 10 years old. Now, the tournament has its first home grown champion in its 21st edition.

McDonald entered the prestigious Challenger 110 event as the top seed and had reached the final in 2018 as well, but this was Krueger’s day. The 25-year-old has been plotting his ascent on the ATP Challenger Tour for more than four years and was finally rewarded with his first piece of silverware.

Hard work and perseverance have paid dividends for Krueger in the past year. In August, he qualified for his first Grand Slam at the US Open after saving three match points in his second-round match and rallying from a set and a break to punch his ticket. And then last month he earned a spot in the Australian Open main draw for the first time, before falling to Novak Djokovic on Rod Laver Arena.

The momentum would carry Krueger to new heights and he has been rewarded with a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 160. Up 49 spots thanks to his title in Dallas, he is making a significant surge at the age of 25. For some players, it simply takes time to put it all together. After many years fighting for Challenger glory, Krueger has his moment.

The American spoke to broadcaster Mike Cation following the final…

Congrats, Mitch. Your first Challenger title. Talk about what this means to you.
It’s incredible. I’ve been taking pictures with so many people that I’ve known from training here. I’m coming here since I was 10 years old. Like they said in the trophy presentation, I was a ball kid here for so many years and then moved on to playing qualies and then main draw. I’ve always had a soft spot for this tournament. You couldn’t have written it up any better than to win my first Challenger here. 

You actually spent a couple years away from this tournament. You would extend your stay in Australia instead of coming home and playing in Dallas.
I struggled playing indoors for the longest time. This time of year is tricky when you’re ranked outside the Top 250. Do I want to play two tournaments in Australia outdoors or come home for one indoor event? I had decent results indoors, but not consistent. On faster surfaces I struggled a bit. I’ve always wanted to play the tournament, but there was a time when I thought it was better for me to stay in Australia. And in 2017 I made a final there. 

But to be honest, I put a lot of work in the offseason this time. I changed my racquet to Yonex and completely changed the grip on my forehand. After the Australian Open, I went back to my childhood coach Dave Licker and his team at The Lakes, 20 minutes north of here. We worked on everything. This is validation for me, knowing I made the right decision for my career. I felt it was time to take some ownership and break from the USTA and go private. That is, take the financial burden and trust that I’ll do the right things and the results will come. I took the leap and this feeling right now is exactly what I was searching for.

In those pressure points and tight moments, you would always get attacked on that forehand wing. You just mentioned the change of grip. It held up pretty well today. How did you feel?
Outside of the first 20 minutes of the match, it felt pretty good. Mackie came out firing and was putting a lot of pressure on me. Once I got my teeth into the match a little bit, I definitely raised my level. I thought my forehand was as good as it’s ever been. In the past, guys would pick that side to break down and it didn’t like it used to. I’m at the point where I’m playing a lot more aggressive and offensive with it. If I can pair that weapon with my backhand and I’m serving well, I’d like to think it’s tough to beat me.

If you could see the pressure of the practises I was doing in Orlando in the offseason, you’d know. Literally doing hand feeds to my forehand for three hours a day for a week and a half. Not doing anything else. Just to feel the new grip. I slowly progressed to live balls and then baseline points. Going into the first week of the season, I wasn’t 100 per cent ready to play with the new racquet and grip, but I felt it was important to throw myself out there. I lost to Stefan Kozlov and it actually gave me confidence, because there were many good moments and I took it right to Australia. I had one of the biggest moments of my career there, playing Novak Djokovic. Every week it got progressively better and better.

It feels like you’re actually downplaying this. To think that you’re spending hours doing hand-feeding, that’s a massive change you’ve made in the span of a month.
We decided to make the change pretty much immediately into the offseason. I knew I had about three and a half weeks to get it down as best I could. I basically started from scratch with my forehand. I could tell that with the feeling of the ball coming off the racquet, it was much better. Then it was just about trusting it. My coaches told me to trust in the mindset of the forehand and that it will make a world of difference if I stick with it. This will open up a lot more doors. I’ve done a good job with that mentality in my entire career, just to keep going and going things will happen. It’s trending in the right direction now.

Your parents have great passion to see you succeed. That’s a double-edged sword sometimes, but what does it mean to have this moment with them? And your girlfriend Jeannie of course. 
It means the world to me to have them all here. In front of both my parents, my sister, Jeannie, my grandpa, my sister’s husband had his family here. It was incredible. Pair with that, Dave and all the guys who are part of my team now. There’s no denying that this is the best scenario for winning my first Challenger.

This is often tough for a lot of players. They get their first Challenger title and then the next couple weeks, they get a bit lost and expect things to happen. How do you fight that off?
I think that I’m late to winning my first Challenger. I’m one of the few guys that people are thinking, ‘how has he not won a Challenger yet?’, so I’m excited for what’s next. I hope I get into Delray Beach qualies next and then obviously Indian Wells Challenger and the Masters 1000 event there. I’ve always done well in bigger tournaments against bigger players. I’m excited going into hopefully an ATP Tour event and then another big Challenger and another ATP event.

How do you celebrate?
That is a great question. I have not thought about it yet. I’m just super excited. I have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Tonight, tomorrow, in the coming weeks.

Juan Ignacio Londero could do no wrong this week at the Cordoba Open. The 25-year-old Argentine, who hadn’t played in a tour-level main draw before this week, won his maiden ATP Tour title on Sunday, beating countryman Guido Pella 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Londero, who was a wild-card entrant, was down a set and a break against the 28-year-old Pella, who also was going for his maiden ATP Tour title after losing his first three finals. But Londero stayed aggressive and took control of the final, with his forehand inflicting much of the damage and the Cordoba crowd carrying him to the finish.

Few players have celebrated such come-from-nowhere runs. Belgian Steve Darcis was 0-2 entering Amersfoort when he qualified and won the title in 2007. Spain’s Santiago Ventura had never played a tour-level match when he qualified for Casablanca in 2004 and then captured the crown.

And former World No. 6 Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador owned only five tour-level wins when he competed in his first ATP Tour event, as a qualifier in Bogota 24 years ago, and won his first title.

Pella had beaten Londero all three of their prior meetings — two on the Futures tour and one on the ATP Challenger Tour. The left-hander, with deep, consistent groundstrokes, placed the onus on Londero to start, and the first-time finalist felt the moment. The 25-year-old from nearby Jesus Maria dropped his serve in the second game, and Pella, with the experience of four previous finals, was steady to take the opener.

Read More: Londero: ‘It’s All Very Crazy’

It was the first set Londero had dropped all week. In his semi-final match, he lost only one game, demolishing two-time ATP Tour titlist Federico Delbonis 6-1, 6-0. But Londero regrouped in the second, finding more inside-out forehands. And while Pella’s patience had paid off in the opening set, Londero hit his targets more often and broke in the 12^th game to force a final set.

Pella never recovered. The left-hander was broken three times in the final set and fell to 0-4 in finals. He will receive 150 ATP Rankings points and $49,205 in prize money.

Londero, No. 112 in the ATP Rankings, will receive 250 ATP Rankings points and is projected to rise to No. 69 on Monday when the new rankings are released. He will receive $90,990 in prize money, or about 30 per cent of his career prize money before this week ($317,482).