Sebastián Báez had a great debut at the ATP 250 in Estoril. Photo on Twitter @ATPTour_ES
Argentine Sebastián Báez, located in 59th position in the world rankings, defeated Portuguese João Sousa (83rd) in two sets, 6-1 and 6-3, on Tuesday, and advanced to round of 16 of the ATP 250 in Estoril, which is part of the European tour in brick dust and distributes prizes of 597,900 euros.
Báez, 21, will face Marin Cilic (23rd) in the next round, who automatically qualifies for round of 16 as the third seed in the tournament. The Croatian will be one of Argentina’s rivals in the Davis Cup group stage drawn this Tuesday morning in Malaga. In addition, Guillermo Coria’s team will face Italy and Sweden.
The surprise on Tuesday was the loss of Diego Schwartzman. El Peque, 15th in the world and second seed, had to debut in the second round against Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, who beat Spain 6-3 3-6 7-6 Roberto Carballes. But in the end he will no longer play in the tournament. The reason? Ang fatigue accumulated by the action of the last few weeksespecially in Barcelona, where on Friday he played and won his round of 16 and quarter-final matches.
Meanwhile, Federico Coria (52) from Rosario lost on Monday in the preliminary round against Spaniard Bernabé Zapata (123), who came out of the classification, 6-4, 6-3.
The top favorites for the title in Estoril are Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime (9) and Austrian Dominic Thiem (54) will also participate, making his debut against Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi (59).
Thiem, the US Open champion in 2020, is slowly returning to the circuit after overcoming an injury to his right wrist (he underwent surgery last year) and his previous tournament was the Marbella Challenger, which he lost in the opening round against Pedro from Cordoba. Cachin of 6-3 and 6-4.
Source: agencies
Source: Clarin
