Bagnis achieved his first victory in Miami and now he is going for the biggest challenge

The Argentines Guido Pella and Facundo Bagnis prevailed today in the debut against the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas and the Brazilian Felipe Meligeni Alves, to advance to the second round of the Masters 1000 of Miamiwhich is carried out in parallel between the ATP and the WTA, on the first day of competition of the contest in which the Cordovan lost Pedro Cachin.

Guido Pella, born in Bahía Blanca and relegated to position 581 in the ATP world ranking due to various injuries that prevented him from competing for a long time, recovered from a bad start in the first set and surpassed the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (88) by 1-6, 6-3 and 6-2after 2 hours and 7 minutes of play.

The 32-year-old left-hander from Bahia will face the Canadian in the second round of the US tournament Denis Shapovalov (30), excepted from participating in the first round.

For his part, Facundo Bagnis, ranked 100th in the ecumenical ranking of tennis, defeated the Brazilian Felipe Meligeni Alves (164), coming from the previous classification of the contest, by 6-3, 1-6 and 6-4after 1 hour and 41 minutes of confrontation, to achieve his first victory in the Masters 1000 in Miami.

The tennis player from Armstrong, Santa Fe, 33 years ago, will play his next match against the top favorite for the title, the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (1), who will enter directly into the second round.

At the same time, Pedro Cachín (63) from Cordoba was defeated by the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics (74), who beat him 6-4, 7-6 (2), after 1 hour and 47 minutes of confrontation.

The tournament will feature five other Argentines: Francisco Cerúndolo, Sebastián Báez and Diego Schwartzman, the three excepted from the initial round, plus Federico Coria and Tomás Martín Etcheverry, who are scheduled to play their initial round matches tomorrow.

“Fran”, the eldest of the Cerúndolo brothers and Argentine number one since his 31st position in the world ranking, will begin his participation against the winner of the cross between the Spanish Jaume Munar (66) and the American Aleksandar Kovacevic (102), a tennis player emerged from the classification.

For Cerúndolo, 24, Miami is a very important tournament since he will defend the points he scored last year when he climbed to the semifinals in a great performance.

Báez (33), for his part, also exempted from the initial round, will play against the winner of the match between the American Marcos Girón (71) and the Chilean Cristian Garín (82), coming from the “qualy”.

The other one who will skip the initial round, “Little” Schwartzman (38), will face the British Kyle Edmund (544) or the Chinese Yibing Wu (64).

For his part, Tomás Martín Etcheverry (73) from La Plata will make his debut against the Russian Pavel Katov (117), who emerged from the “qualy” and, if he passes, he will have to face the Russian Karen Khachanov (16), while the Rosario ” Fefo” Coria (67) will play against the Czech ascendant Jiri Lehecka (44) and, if he beats him, he will play in the second round of the tournament against the Italian Lorenzo Musetti (21).

The Miami Masters 1000, on a cement surface and with prizes of $10,156,105, will take place in its new setting since 2019, the Hard Rock Stadium, where the Miami Dolphins, one of the main teams in the NFL, is based. , in Miami Gardens, in the State of Florida.

Alcaraz, 19, regained his number one position in the world last Sunday after winning the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, after beating Russian Daniil Medvedev (5) 6-3, 6-2 in the final. allowed to displace the Serbian Novak Djokovic (2).

In the case of the Serb, his absence, as happened in Indian Wells, is due to the fact that the US government did not allow him to enter the country for not having been vaccinated against the coronavirus, while another heavyweight who will not be in Miami It will be the Spanish Rafael Nadal (13), who is recovering from an injury and will only return in April on the European tour on brick dust.