The Argentine tennis player Francisco Cerúndolo beat the local yesterday Geoffrey Blancaneaux 6-2, 4-6 and 6-4 in the first round of the Aix en Provence Challenger, France, disputed over brick dust.
Cerúndolo, fourth favorite of the tournament and number 116 in the ATP ranking, will have as his next rival the winner of today’s match, between the Italian Matteo Viola (251 °) and the Swede Elias Ymer (182 °).
Four other Argentines await their debut, which will be today in this tournament on the Costa Azul, and they are the following:
Agustín Velotti (335 °) against the Frenchman Arthur Cazaux (451 °); Renzo Olivo (203 °) against a rival in the classification; Facundo Bagnis (96 °) with the Spanish Javier Barranco Cosano (338 °) and Andrea Collarini (199) against the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (133 °).
This French Challenger was won in its first edition in 2014 by Argentine Diego Schwartzman and had Carlos Berlocq as a finalist in 2016.
Diego schwartzman left the “Top Ten” ‘
The Argentinian Diego Schwartzman left the “top ten” of the world ranking of tennis after inhabiting it for 32 consecutive weeks, a setback that came from having resigned points during his recent participation at Roland Garros.
The “Peque” dropped from tenth place, now held by the Spanish Roberto Bautista Agut, to eleventh, since this year he defended the semifinals of the 2020 edition in Paris and was eliminated in the previous instance, the quarterfinals, against Rafael Nadal .
The Argentine had entered the top ten of the ATP rankings on October 12 of last year when he moved from twelfth to eighth.
The “top ten” is occupied by Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 1st); Daniil Medvedev (Russia, 2nd); Nadal (Spain, 3rd), Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece, 4th), Dominic Thiem (Austria, 5th), Alexander Zverev (Germany, 6th), Andrey Rublev (Russia, 7th), Roger Federer (Switzerland, 8th ), Matteo Berrettini (Italy, 9th) and Bautista Agut (Spain, 10th).
The remaining Argentines among the top 100 in the world are: Federico Delbonis (48th, up three places), Guido Pella (62nd, lost one place) and Facundo Bagnis (96th, up eight places).
In the female branch, Rosario’s Nadia Podoroska rose two places and was ranked number 40 in the WTA classification, which represents her best historical ranking.
Roger Federer advances in Halle
The swiss Roger Federer qualified for the last 16 of the tournament in Halle, Germany, after beating Belarusian Ilya Ivashka 7-6 (7/4) and 7-5 in the first round.
“There is room for improvement, but I am happy with my first match here on grass. I feel good”, declared Federer, No. 8 in the world, after the match that lasted 96 minutes.
Federer, who will turn 40 on August 8, will face the winner of the match played today by Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (21st) and Pole Hubert Hurkacz, (17th) in the round of 16.
In another order, the Argentine Guido Pella, number 62 in the world ranking, will begin his participation today against the Slovak Lukas Lacko (214 °), while the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas made the decision to get off this tournament on grass.
He reported that he did so with the aim of taking a break after reaching the final at Roland Garros, in which he lost to Serbian Novak Djokovic, after five intense sets and after having won the first two sets.
The current number four in the ATP ranking was listed as second pre-classified in the German tournament, behind Russian Daniil Medvedev, No. 2 in the world.
The place left vacant by Tsitsipas will be taken by German Yannick Hanfmann, ranked 99th, who entered the table as a lucky loser, having lost in the last round of qualifying.
The German competition, the prelude to Wimbledon that will begin on June 28, awards prizes totaling more than 1,455,000 euros.
–
