Pella Leads Argentines During Celebratory Day In Cordoba

On the first day of the inaugural edition of the Cordoba Open, Argentines, rightfully, stole the show. Two of the three home favourites in action on Monday advanced as qualifier Pedro Cachin and eighth seed Guido Pella advanced.

Cachin earned his first tour-level victory 6-4, 6-4 against Brit Cameron Norrie, who reached the ASB Classic final in Auckland (l. to Sandgren) to start the year. Cachin had been 0-2 in tour-level matches, but won 92 per cent of his first-serve points (23/25) and stayed steady as Norrie grew frustrated.

The 23-year-old will face fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain for a place in the quarter-finals.

Pella broke Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi four times, including thrice in the second set, to improve to 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 6-1, 6-3. The 28-year-old Argentine awaits the winner of Chile’s Christian Garin and Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain.

Tunisian Malek Jaziri won nearly half of his first-serve return points (46%) against Carlos Berlocq to keep the Argentines from going unbeaten, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4). Jaziri will next meet Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas or Argenine qualifier Facundo Bagnis.

In other singles action, Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene setup a second-round meeting with top seed Fabio Fognini by dismissing German Maximilian Marterer 6-3, 6-4. Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego saved all three break points and beat Spaniard Pablo Andujar, a four-time clay-court ATP Tour titlist, 6-3, 6-2.