who was upset in the quarters<\/a> by the unheralded Argentine Thiago Agustin Tirante, \u201cbut now I\u2019m 2-for-2 getting a title when I come to River Oaks. It\u2019s really cool to get a title anywhere, anyhow on the ATP Tour. They\u2019re few and far between. To turn it around and take the title in doubles with a good friend for many years is a very good ending. I\u2019m super happy about this.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nThe stakes were obviously much higher for Andrade, who\u2019s only ranked 218th in singles and had lost in the second round of qualifying here. He and Shelton received a wild card into the doubles draw \u2013 obviously because of the American Shelton\u2019s standing and nationality.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt feels amazing,\u201d Andrade said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we expected it. But we both played great and we enjoyed it, which is what matters most. As soon as Benny agreed to play with me, I thought we had a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luz and Matos, the ATP\u2019s ninth-ranked doubles team, have been playing together since 2019 and were seeking their fourth title together. Their experience showed in the first set, but Shelton and Andrade adjusted as the match went on and Andrade wound up playing the hero\u2019s role with a couple of perfectly timed poaches at the net to turn the tiebreaker in their favor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to lose a point with Benny at the back,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt like I had to make a move and thank God I did it at the right time. I executed. I think that was key.\u201d<\/p>\n
Observed Shelton, laughing, \u201cYeah, he took matters into his own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Although Andrade has lived in the U.S. since he was 6 years old, he\u2019s still proud of his roots. He and Alvaro Guillen Meza are the only players from Ecuador currently ranked in the top 1,000, although Andres Gomez did win the French Open in 1990 and N\u00edcolas Lapentti once climbed to sixth in the singles ranking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot people back there are supporting me and they want to see me succeed, Andrade said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to (win) this for Ecuador.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton made it 2-for-2 in trophies at the U.S. Clay Court Championship after pairing with Andres Andrade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-584610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}