Indian Wells, day 4: triumphs for Cerúndolo and Báez, and defeat for Pella in the Californian desert

Francisco Cerúndolo and Sebastián Báez advanced this Saturday to the third round of the Indian Wells Masters 1000. The fortunes were different for Guido Pella, eliminated from this traditional tournament played in the Californian desert.

Fran Cerúndolo, the best Argentine in the ATP world rankings from 32nd place, measured forces with local server Jack Sock (154), who he beat 4-6, 6-3 and 6-4 on court 3 of the complex . After losing the first set, the man from Buenos Aires has recovered and built an interesting victory that will allow him to face the Canadian Félix Auger Aliassime (10), executioner of the Spanish Pedro Martínez (120) 7-6 ( 5) and 6 -4.

Báez (35), for his part, champion this year at the Córdoba Open, had a solid performance in his debut, against Rinky Hijikata (130), who topped the rankings and beat Swede Mikael Ymer (57) in the round initial. ). The man from Buenos Aires dominated the match from start to finish and prevailed with a sensational 6-3 and 6-1, in one hour and 4 minutes of play.

Báez will then face the last champion of this contest, American Taylor Fritz (5), who knocked out his compatriot Ben Shelton (41) 4-6, 6-4 and 6-3.

For his part, after defeating the Brazilian Thiago Monteiro (78) in the opening round, the Bahian Pella (739) was unable to beat Griekspoor (36), who was excluded from the first round. He was 7-6 (3) and 7-6 (4) for the European Championship, which will compete in the next instance with the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (2), the first favorite to the title, who beat the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis (94 ).

The Indian Wells Masters 1000 takes place on a hard surface, will pay out prize money of $10,143,750, runs until Sunday, March 19, and is played jointly by the ATP and WTA.

The contest has had only one Argentine champion in history, Juan Martín Del Potro of Tandil, lift the trophy in the 2018 edition.

On that occasion Del Potro defeated the Swiss Roger Federer, from whom he took away the unbeaten record in the first 18 games of the year after defeating him in the final by 6-4, 6-7 (8-10) and 7-6 (7 -2).