the debut of Juan Manuel Cerúndolo (119th) in Indian Wells was far from being the expected one: he fell twice 6-1 against Jack Sock (147th) in one hour and four minutes to say goodbye to the first Masters 1000 of the season. On the other hand, who did celebrate was Federico Coria (65th) against Pablo Cuevas (104th).
The 20-year-old, who was making his debut in tournaments in this category, was overwhelmed by the former American Top Ten, who had a dream day recalling his best times. Winners, big forehands and elite volleys. In the second round he will have a very tough stumbling block as is the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, protagonist of the tournament and candidate to go far.
The Argentine Next Gen played his second post psoas tear match and his tennis did not flow; he made a lot of unforced errors and didn’t generate any winners. His record at the ATP level on hard courts this season is 1-4 and his next destination will be the Phoenix Challenger, in the run-up to the Miami Masters 1000.
In any case, Argentina was able to celebrate in Indian Wells because Coria played a more than entertaining game against Cuevas and beat him 6-4, 7-6 (5). The Santa Fe native, who joined the Davis Cup team last weekend, won his first victory in California and his second overall in the Masters 1000.
In turn, he repeated victory against Cuevas just as he had achieved at the ATP in Buenos Aires. Today, in the live ranking, he broke the barrier of the top 60 in the world for the first time in his career, one day after his 30th birthday.
After this solid and convincing performance, his next hurdle will be Daniel Evans (27th). The Briton has never faced Coria and it should be noted that he has an Argentine coach: Sebastián Prieto, coach of Juan Martín del Potro until his -for now- last match in the Buenos Aires tournament.
