Argentina's Horacio Zeballos holds up his trophy after winning the men's singles final against Spain's Rafael Nadal at the Chilean Open tennis tournament in Vina del Mar city Sunday. — Reuters VINA DEL MAR, Chile — Argentine Horacio Zeballos sprung a major surprise by beating Rafa Nadal 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-4 to win the Chilean Open Sunday and clinch the first title of his career. World No. 73 Zeballos held his nerve in the final set, breaking Nadal when he was serving to stay in the match to seal victory after almost three hours in the Pacific coast city of Vina del Mar. Zeballos was competitive from the outset, but failed to exploit two break-points in the first set to allow Nadal a tiebreak, which the Spaniard comfortably wrapped up 7-2. Zeballos hit back to win the second set tiebreak 8-6 and showed great poise to level at 1-1 in the decider after being broken before proceeding to an inspiring victory. He became just the third player — along with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer — to beat Nadal in a clay court final, quite an achievement for the Argentinian despite the fact that Nadal was playing his first tournament in seven months. "It's a dream for me," said Zeballos. "To be able to play a final against Nadal was already good enough for me. It's a moment that will stay in my memory for the rest of my life." Nadal returned to the court later, teaming with Argentina's Juan Monaco where they lost in the doubles final to Italians Paolo Lorenzi and Potito Starace 6-2, 6-4. Nadal, whose plan to resume at the end of 2012 after a long layoff due to a knee injury was delayed due to illness, will continue playing on his favorite clay surface at two other Latin American events this month. Italy in Fed Cup semis Italy beat the United States 3-2 to progress to the Fed Cup semifinals Sunday after Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci cruised to victory over Varvara Lepchenko and Liezel Huber in the decisive doubles match. Errani and Vinci lived up to their billing as the top-ranked doubles pairing by winning 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour, 11 minutes to eliminate the understrength American team. Italy will next host defending champion Czech Republic in a rematch of last year's semifinal. — Agencies
