The Argentine tennis player Guido Pella advanced to the second round of the Masters 1000 of Rome after a good victory over the French Maxime Cressy by 6-3 and 6-4, while his compatriot diego schwartzman he was eliminated in his debut in the contest.
Pella, born in Bahía Blanca and relegated to 484th place in the ATP world ranking after almost a year inactive due to injury, performed at a very good level to prevail in straight sets over Cressy (41) after 1 hour and 40 minutes of contention.
The 32-year-old left-hander from Bahia will assume his next commitment against the Spanish Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (34), excepted from the initial round.
For his part, the porteño Diego Schwartzman (91) deepened his terrible moment and fell in his presentation in the tournament against the Italian Matteo Arnaldi (99)who entered the contest at an invitation from the organizers, 6-1, 4-6 and 6-3, after 2 hours and 27 minutes of play.
The “Little” is going through the worst moment in his professional career, he lost again in the first round of a tournament and is very close to falling out of the top hundred of the ranking, a situation that will happen within a month if he does not defend the round of 16 from Roland Garros the previous year.
Today, he started again very erratic and without confidence, he lost quickly in the first set, he was able to recover with effort in the second and once again gave prominence to a young Italian, enthusiastic, but far from being a tennis promise.
The other three Argentine tennis players who continue in the tournament that takes place at the Foro Itálico facilities, Francisco Cerúndolo, Sebastián Báez and Tomás Martín Etcheverry, will play their second round matches tomorrow.
In the case of “Fran” Cerúndolo (31) from Buenos Aires, excepted from the initial round, he will face the Chinese Yibing Wu (57), winner of the French Richard Gasquet (44) by 3-6, 6-3 and 6-3 .
Báez (40), from Buenos Aires, for his part, beat Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (97) 7-5, 6-3 in the initial round, and will play his next match against Russian Alexander Shevchenko (93), who entered to the main draw as a “lucky loser” to replace the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor (36), injured at the last minute.
Finally, Etcheverry (61) from La Plata appeared in Rome with a 7-6 (9-7) and 6-3 win over Frenchman Luca Van Assche (85), and this Friday he will face none other than Serbian Novak Djokovic , number 1 in the world.
The tournament, which is played in parallel between the ATP and the WTA on clay courts, will distribute prizes of 8,637,966 euros and brings together Djokovic (1) and the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (2), since they had not met so far in 2023.
Among the ladies, the great favorite is the Polish Iga Swiatek (1), winner in the last two editions, in 2021 and 2022, while her main rival is the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (2).
As for the Argentines who lifted the trophy in Rome, Guillermo Vilas won the 1980 edition, José Luis Clerc was crowned in 1981 and Alberto “Luli” Mancini in 1989.
However, the most outstanding of the Argentines was Gabriela Sabatini, who was crowned at the Foro Italico four times: 1988, 1989, 1991 and 1992.
Source: Ambito
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