Argentine tennis in the Paris Masters 1000 It had a first day with a neutral balance. Francisco Cerúndolo and Tomás Martín Etcheverry They managed to advance to the second round with clear victories and began to score key points to close the year as high as possible. The negative marks were for Sebastián Báez and the duo Maximo Gonzalez y Andrés Moltenieliminated in their debut.
Francisco Cerúndolo (29th in the ATP ranking) had a solid start against the Frenchman Quentin Halys (90°), which he beat with partials of 7-6 (5) and 6-3. The Buenos Aires native, who had just lost to the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round of the ATP Basel Last week, he showed an aggressive and effective game, dominating with his forehand and taking advantage of break opportunities. In the second round, a tough challenge awaits: the Russian Andrey Rublev (6th), one of the favorites to win the title.
For its part, Tomás Martín Etcheverry (40th) also entered the next phase after beating the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (47th) by 6-3 and 7-6 (6). The man from La Plata, along with Fran and Seba, will be in Malaga to compete in the Final 8 of Davis Cup with the Argentine Tennis Team YPFconfirmed his good moment and was solid with his serve, one of his main weapons. Your next rival will be the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (9th), in what promises to be an attractive duel.
Sebastian Baez (26th) starred in one of the most vibrant matches of the day although he could not beat the Serbian Miomir Kecmanović (56th), in a match that was defined in three sets in favor of the European. The Buenos Aires native, who has just lost in his last six appearances and failed to add points on the indoor tour on the other side of the ocean, gave up the first set 6-4. However, they reacted in the second set, taking it 7-6 (6) in a tie-break in which their rival had two match points. In the decisive round, the Argentine had an advantage that seemed to lead to victory, when he took a 3-1 lead. But the solidity of the rival and its lack of confidence did not allow it to take advantage of the opportunity to advance in the French competition, after falling 7-5. In the next instance, the winner of the albiceleste will face the winner of the duel between Australian Alex de Miñaur (10th) and Mariano Navone (45th).
The Nave will begin his journey in the Masters 1000 on Tuesday, when he must face the ninth seed to win the title, at a time to be confirmed.
The competition will also serve for the best eight tennis players to define the places in the ATP Finals, which will take place between November 10 and 17 in the Italian city of Turin. At the moment, there are four players who have already secured their place in the last major ATP event on the calendar: Jannil Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev. Those who have a chance to join are: Taylor Fritz, Novak Djokovic -who decided not to play the Paris Masters 1000 and put his place at risk-, Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Alex de Miñaur, Tommy Paul, Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Argentine duo composed of Máximo González and Andrés Moltenione of the best on the circuit, could not make it through the first round of the doubles draw. The Argentines fell to the pair formed by Croatians Ivan Dodig and Marin Cilic, 7-5 and 6-4.
