Guayaquil: Dellien beats Aguilar Cardozo, wins the Challenger

Hugo Dellien has won the 2026 Guayaquil Challenger, a Challenger 75 event played on the clay of Ecuador. In the final the Bolivian beat Uruguay's Joaquin Aguilar Cardozo 7-5 1-0, with his opponent retiring in the second set. For Dellien it is a title that rewards a season of good results on the South American Challenger circuit.

The tournament began on 26 October 2026 and drew 26 players from 11 nations. Argentina was the best represented, with nine players, but the title went to Bolivia, which had two. Uruguay, also with two players in the draw, finished with a final.

The final was short. Dellien took the first set 7-5, then led 1-0 in the second when Aguilar Cardozo retired. The site's draw records the result as 7-5 1-0 retired. There are no other official details on the reason and we add none: what matters is the result, which hands the title to Dellien.

The champion's path was clean. In the round of 16 he beat Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez 7-5 6-2. In the quarter-finals he gave Carlos Maria Zarate a lesson, winning 6-0 6-2. In the semi-final he had to fight harder against Valerio Aboian: the first set went to a tie-break, won 7-6 (7), then he took the second 6-2.

The match with Aboian was the tightest of his week. The first set closed with a tie-break won 9-7, then Dellien took control and wrapped up the second 6-2. Aboian, for his part, had knocked out Diego Dedura in the round of 16 with two tie-breaks (7-6 (4) 7-6 (3)) and Nick Hardt in the quarter-finals, 6-2 1-6 7-6 (5).

Aguilar Cardozo's run deserves attention too. The 21-year-old Uruguayan, born on 8 April 2005, beat Miguel Tobon 6-3 6-3, Tomas Barrios Vera 6-1 6-3, Lautaro Midon 7-6 (3) 6-4 and, in the semi-final, Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva 7-5 6-1. Four wins in a row, without dropping a set, before the last act.

The points matter a great deal. A title at a Challenger 75 is worth 75 ATP points, the final 45, the semi-final 27. Dellien is now No. 112 in the ATP rankings with 535 points. Ahead of him is Corentin Moutet, No. 111, with five more points; behind him Jan Choinski, No. 113, with two fewer. Compared with 9 September 2026 he has climbed 29 places.

Aguilar Cardozo's jump is even bigger. With the 45 points from the final, while 8 from the 2025 edition (round of 16) expired, he is No. 289 with 190 points, 135 places higher than on 9 September 2026. His best ranking is No. 288, reached on 2 November 2026. Just behind him, Marc-Andrea Huesler is No. 290 with one point fewer.

Dellien is 33, born on 16 June 1993, and has spent little time at the top level in recent years. In the Slams, Masters 1000, ATP 500 and 250 events followed by the site, between 2021 and 2025 he played 35 matches and won 6, or 17%, with no titles and no finals. In 2025 his record was two wins and nine losses.

His territory is the Challenger circuit, above all on clay. This 2026 season had already seen him reach one final: in Santa Cruz de la Sierra 2, where he lost 6-4 6-3 to Thiago Seyboth Wild and collected 45 points. In Buenos Aires he beat Matheus Pucinelli De Almeida 5-7 6-4 6-4 in the first round, before losing in the round of 16 to Nicolas Kicker, 4-6 7-5 6-0.

There were off days too. In Cali he lost his opener to Juan Manuel La Serna, 6-3 2-0 retired. In Genoa, at a Challenger 125, he reached the round of 16. His record over his last thirty matches was twelve wins and eighteen losses; in Guayaquil, though, he won four matches out of four, and his last ten show seven wins and three losses.

The Ecuadorian event, meanwhile, has a short but already recognisable history. The site records three editions, from 2024 to 2026. In 2024 Federico Agustin Gomez won, beating Tomas Barrios Vera 6-1 6-4. In 2025 the title went to Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, who beat Juan Pablo Varillas in the final 7-5 6-7 (7) 6-3.

In 2026 the final was of a different kind, but the overall numbers describe a lively week: 26 matches played, eight tie-breaks, four matches that went to a deciding set, one set finished 6-0 and three retirements. The longest match was Carlos Maria Zarate-Gonzalo Bueno, 3-6 7-5 7-5, for a total of 33 games.

Another name to remember is Aboian. The semi-finalist, born on 14 June 2002, is No. 253 with 220 points and has gained 173 places since 9 September 2026. He had already played a final in Cali, losing to Matheus Pucinelli De Almeida 7-6 (1) 6-3. He has eight wins and two losses in his last ten matches, and after Guayaquil he moved on to Villa Maria, where he beat Alan Magadan 4-6 6-1 6-1 in the first round.

Head-to-head records say something too. The Guayaquil meeting is the first between Dellien and Aboian on the site's page: one-nil to the Bolivian. In the quarter-finals, Zarate did not win a single game in the first set against Dellien and took two in the second, a 6-0 6-2 that was the widest scoreline of Dellien's week.

And now? For Dellien, the site's live ranking will update at every round of the coming tournaments: today he is No. 112 with 535 points, five away from Moutet. Aguilar Cardozo, meanwhile, has the 45 points of the final to build on: they are the ones that gained him 135 places in under two months.

Anyone who follows South American tennis knows the Challenger circuit is the true training ground of the tour. Stories like those of Dellien and Aguilar Cardozo show why they are worth watching: long careers, climbs up the rankings and finals decided in a few games. The player pages on youaretennis.com show the latest results of every tournament.