While the spotlight remains on the last Masters 1000 of the seasonthat of Paris-Bercy, which has Francisco Cerúndolo In the third round, the activity continues in the Challenger 75 from Guayaquil with prominence of Albiceleste tennis players. The event hosted by the Tennis Club Annex of the Ecuadorian city is the sixth in a series of twelve that the region receives in the final stretch of 2024. The start was in September in Cali, Colombia, and then went through Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The tour will culminate in November with two historic competitions in San Pablo and Temucoon fast cement courts, after the turn of Lima and Montevideo –brick dust-.
Wednesday’s card showed less Argentine participation than Tuesday, especially in the singles category. The pairs team, for its part, had seven on the field. Some of them, paired with foreigners. Federico Gomezwith the Venezuelan Luis David Martínezy Mariano Kestelboimwith the Uruguayan Ignacio Carouare some of the examples.
The first of the albicelestes to take action in singles was Federico Coriain the second turn of the Court Central. The second seed of the event, who is going through an adverse present that expelled him from the Top 100continued his adventure in Ecuador against his compatriot Kestelboim, after eliminating another Argentine in the first round: Nicholas Kicker.
As expected, it was a fairly even match, which had an initial set with a total of seven breaks. Although his rival managed to get ahead twice, Coria recovered and took him 7-5. The second, meanwhile, had a different course. After playing an even game, where his service was endangered on six occasions, he found an escape and scored two breaks to mark the gap. Finally, it was a triumph for the native of One-Eyed Deer, by 7-5 and 6-2. In the next instance he will have a dangerous challenge against the local Andres Andradewhich comes from striking two important blows on the table by eliminating Marco Trungelliti and to the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas.
Next, on the same stage, it was time for another of the tournament’s attractions: Juan Manuel Cerúndolo. Despite that setback in the second round of the Cali Challengerthe youngest of the brothers was one of the players who scored the most points to date on the tour. He became champion in Antofagasta and reached the semi-finals Villa Maria y Curitiba. After surpassing Renzo Olivo In his debut, he sought to remain firm in the Ecuadorian city and on the other side of the net he found himself Henrique Rocha.
The Portuguese, who in September defeated Casper Ruud in the series of Davis Cup against Norwaydoes not usually frequent these lands and, like Jaime Fariathe other Portuguese, is one of the new features. The Argentine started the set down (5-7), regrouped and managed to draw to reach the tiebreaker. Juanma took advantage of the clean and jerk and had an unbeatable start, going 2-0 in a few minutes.
After four games that allowed Rocha to tie the duel, Cerúndolo was forced to retire due to, apparently, cramps in one of his hands. In the absence of official confirmation, his participation in the traditional Challenger de Limawhich was played for more than 10 years and will begin next week at the Club Miraflores terraces.
