Facundo Díaz Acosta remains unbeatable: he beat Wawrinka on his debut at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro

Winning is difficult, but even more difficult is to win after being champion and that’s what he achieved Facundo Diaz Acosta this Tuesday at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro. The 23-year-old Argentine, winner of the Argentina Open last Sunday, did not relax after winning the first title of his career and defeating the three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka on their debut in Rio: 7-5 and 6-4 in an hour and 54 minutes of play on a day that started late due to rain.

Díaz Acosta had achieved only one victory on the big tennis circuit before the start of the South American clay court tournaments, but in recent weeks he has proven right those who saw him as promising as he won two medals (gold in doubles with Sebastián Báez and silver in the singles) at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. There have been years of work in tennis, physical and mental, which are now bearing fruit. He reached the quarterfinals in Córdoba and overwhelmed Buenos Aires after receiving an average of wild card and now He achieved his sixth consecutive victory.

He was down 5-2 in the first set, but never gave up and went from bottom to top to win five Games consecutive and maintain the first set. That record, in reality, was eight games in a row because the Lucila player started the second with two quick breaks that seemed to resolve the dispute. However, Stan fought back, leaned on the audience, and created some suspense, even if it wouldn’t be enough. In the end, the victory was in the hands of the man of the moment, who was lucid in the important moments of the match matches.

In his press conferences at Lawn Tennis, even before shouting champion, Facu underlined the importance of maintaining oneself and not being satisfied with what has been achieved. For the moment he is succeeding. He makes few mistakes, is patient in working on points based on his consistency from the baseline and exasperates his opponents. Wawrinka was his last victim. Now you will have to face Sebastiano Baezhis executioner in Córdoba and who left the Frenchman Corentin Moutet away 6-4 and 6-3.

Whoever gave the Argentine tennis players a negative rating was Pedro Cachin, fell on the local Felipe Meligeni Alves, coming from the ranking, by 6-2, 3-6 and 6-3. The Cordoban of Bel Ville, 74th in the world, accumulates ten consecutive defeats among the challengers, qualis and main draw matches at ATP level and cannot raise his head. His last victory dates back to October last year. Meligeni Alves could cross in the next instance with Carlos Alcaraz, the number two in the world who will make his debut with Thiago Monteiro.

While, Federico Coria AND Mariano Navone, the rivals close the action on court 4, securing a new Argentine in the second round.