Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (SportsNetwork.com) - World No. 1 Rafael Nadal captured the title at the inaugural $1.3 million Rio Open on Sunday.
In a match that took 1 hour, 41 minutes, Nadal won his 62nd career title and second of the year with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov on the red clay at Jockey Club Brasileiro.
Nadal won at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open to start the year, before falling in the final of the Australian Open to Stanislas Wawrinka.
"I'm very happy. Always when you win a title, it's special," Nadal said. "You don't have a chance to play a lot of these [ATP World Tour 500 tournaments] in the calendar. The first edition of a big tournament like Rio, it's a very important city in the world, and after coming back from injury, it always makes the victory a little more special."
Dolgopolov, ranked 54th in the world, failed in his bid for his third career ATP singles title and first since winning the Citi Open in Washington in August of 2012. He is now winless in five lifetime meetings with Nadal.
Nadal took home $316,400 for his victory here.
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