Bagnis Bags Chance At Cuevas, Almagro Falls
Bagnis Bags Chance At Cuevas, Almagro Falls
Defending champion to open against Bagnis, while Almagro upset
Facundo Bagnis defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-1 Tuesday at the Brasil Open to set a second-round clash with third seed and defending champion Pablo Cuevas, who is fresh off a title win at the Rio Open. It will be the third meeting between the two; Cuevas leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head 2-0.
Brazilian wild card Thiago Monteiro continued his impressive run on home soil, backing up his upset of World No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last week in his ATP World Tour debut at the Rio Open with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over three-time champion Nicolas Almagro in the first round in Sao Paulo.
At 21, Monteiro is the youngest player in the draw, while seventh seed Almagro had only just returned to the Top 50 in the Emirates ATP Rankings (at No. 50) this week for the first time in more than a year after reaching the final at Buenos Aires (l. to Thiem) and the second round in Rio de Janeiro (l. to No. 5 Nadal).
Top seed Benoit Paire will open his Sao Paulo campaign against Dusan Lajovic, who beat last year’s runner-up Luca Vanni 6-2, 6-2 in 56 minutes on Tuesday, while Blaz Rola battled to oust sixth seed Paolo Lorenzi 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-6(5). The Slovenian capitalised on four of his five break chances to advance to the second round in two hours and 44 minutes.
Rola will next face Inigo Cervantes, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers. Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta also advanced after knocking out fifth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(2). The Gijon native will next face countryman Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
Gastao Elias and Diego Schwartzman both advanced to the second round after their opponents retired, eighth seed Pablo Andujar (right shoulder injury) and Horacio Zeballos (dehydration), respectively. Schwartzman will next face fourth seed Federico Delbonis, while Elias will face Santiago Giraldo, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Marco Cecchinato.
In doubles, Julio Peralta and Horacia Zeballos beat Mateusz Kowalczyk and Andreas Siljestrom 7-6(3), 7-5 to set a quarter-final meeting with Rogerio Dutra Silva and Joao Souza. Argentines Guillermo Duran and Andreas Moteni took down Brazilians Thomaz Bellucci and Marcelo Demoliner 6-4, 6-2.