Two of three for the Argentines in the singles table of the Masters 1000 from Paris. Francisco Cerúndolo y Tomas Etcheverry They debuted with good victories in straight sets and reached the second round. While Sebastian Baez He said goodbye very quickly to a lucky loser who entered the tournament minutes before the start of the match.
Cerúndolo, 29th in the world, defeated the Frenchman Quentin Halys90th and coming from the classification, by 7-6 (7-5) and 6-3. And Etcheverry, 40th in the ranking, won against the Chinese Zhinzhen Zhang47th, 6-3 and 7-6 (8-6). Báez, 26th in the ATP, was ready to face Alejandro Davidovich Fokinaalso emerged from the previous phase, but the Spaniard withdrew from the competition due to an injury shortly before the time scheduled for the match. And the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic He entered as a “lucky loser” and beat the Buenos Aires native 6-4, 6-7 (5-7) and 7-5).
On the center court, Cerúndolo remained even against his rival during the first set, which he ended up closing in the tie break, showing that he was one step ahead. He continued with the clean and jerk in the second set, in which he was firmer and more confident, which allowed him to take the match in one hour and 28 minutes.
It was the 99th victory of his career. (only 14th on indoor courts), so if she manages to get past the second round, she will reach the milestone of a hundred wins in tournaments on the major circuit, at 26 years old. In the usual signature to the camera, the Buenos Aires native wrote “Let’s go River”thinking about the rematch of the Copa Libertadores semifinals against Atlético Mineiro, with the 0-3 in tow.
His next rival -this Tuesday around 1:00 p.m. in Argentina- will be the Russian Andrey Rublevnumber seven in the world and who was free in the first round, against whom he won twice – Hamburg 2022 semi-finals of Umag this year – and lost in one – Bastad 2023 semis -, so the numbers play in his favor of the Argentine.
A while later, Etcheverry put Zhang down and took the first step on the Paris Bercy indoor hard court. He passed the first set with fewer difficulties than the second, and managed to handle the pressure of the tie break final to finish taking the game.
His next challenge will be against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitroveighth in the standings and another that will start in the second round, which will be the first meeting between the two.
The bad news of the day was the elimination of Báez, the current best-ranked Argentine, which extended a negative streak against an unexpected rival. The Buenos Aires native was about to take the field when he found out that Davidovich Fokina was withdrawing from the tournament and his new opponent would be the Serbian Kecmanovic.
The change was so last minute that the plaques announcing the match in the official broadcast had already appeared with the Spaniard’s name and the public was surprised when they saw the Serbian appear in the stadium.
On the court, Báez put up a fight, but could not take advantage of his opportunities and ended up giving up the victory in almost two and a half hours of play. After losing the initial set by a comfortable difference, the Buenos Aires native rose in the second, in which he saved two match points against in the tie break before closing the set. And he was 3-1 up in the third, although he could not avoid the Serbian’s reaction.
It was the sixth loss in a row for Báez, who has not won a match since his debut at the US Open, when he defeated the Italian (Argentine by birth) Luciano Darderi. After that celebration, he said goodbye to New York against Tallon Griekspoor and then had falls in the clash with Canada for the Davis Cup, Shanghai, Antwerp and Basel. Although against Kecmanovic he seemed more confident and more fighter than in those last competitions.
The Serbian waits in the second round for the winner of the duel between Mariano Navone45th and the only albiceleste representative who has not yet debuted in Paris, and the Australian Alex De Minaurninth favorite, who will play this Tuesday, not before 11:30 in Argentina.