Federico Coria
sweated his shirt under the sun of a Tuesday with clear but quite cool skies at the
Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis
and fought for almost three hours, but managed to sign his place in the round of 16 of the
Argentina Open 2024
.
In the match that opened the action on the center court, the man from Rosario, 106th in the ranking and who entered the draw thanks to a special exemption, defeated the very tough Austrian
Sebastian Ofner
7-5, 4-6 and 7-5 , 38 °, and celebrated it in a special way.
When his victory was confirmed, after two hours and 58 minutes of play, he raised his fist and pointed to one of the elbows of the stadium.
And minutes later, he approached and threw his wristbands and some balls at a group of children who had gathered in that area.
"I want to thank those guys who never stopped encouraging me. When I was down, when I was having a hard time in the game, I always heard them cheering. They reminded me of when I was that young and dreamed of being here on the field," he counted.
And he added: "The help of the people is very important to achieve this victory. I am very happy to have won in the first round because it is very nice to be playing this tournament again. I did not want to go quickly because we are waiting all year to play in home and I want to enjoy it as much as I can.
And Court Guillermo Vilas ERUPTS 🗣️
Argentine @fedeecoria battles past Ofner 7-5 4-6 7-5 in almost three hours in Buenos Aires!@ArgentinaOpen pic.twitter.com/PsnGDTbWnd
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 13, 2024
Coria, who reached the semifinals of the
Cordoba Open
last week , will now have a difficult commitment, because he will face the British
Cameron Norrie
, second favorite, for a place in the quarterfinals.
Next, on the main stage,
Diego Schwartzman
, one of the organization's guests, will face the Colombian
Daniel Galán
, from the previous phase.
El
Peque
, 116th in the ranking, had a weak start to the season: he did not pass the Brisbane and
Australian Open
qualifications and fell last week in his debut in
Córdoba
.
And he will seek to reverse that bad streak in a tournament in which he has a nice history (he was champion in 2021) and always feels very comfortable.
In stadium 2,
Camilo Ugo Carabelli
faces the Peruvian
Juan Pablo Varillas
for passage to the second round and a special prize: the winner will face the Spanish
Carlos Alcaraz
, the top favorite and defending champion.
Ugo Carabelli, 134th in the ranking, entered the draw from qualifying, after beating the Spanish
Jaume Munar
, 71st, in the first round and the Bolivian
Hugo Dellien
, 135th, in the second.
The 24-year-old from Buenos Aires was crowned champion at the end of January in the
Challenger in Piracicaba
, Brazil, and wants to get into the top 16 of the Buenos Aires competition for the second consecutive year.
In the rest of the day, two other Argentines will also present.
Sebastián Báez
, fifth favorite, will collide in the last turn of the Guillermo Vilas court - not before 8:30 p.m. - with the Spanish
Bernabé Zapata Miralles
, 78th in the ranking.
And on court 2, not before 5:30 p.m.,
Mariano Navone
, also emerging from the classification, will have a difficult match against the Italian (born in Villa Gesell)
Luciano Darderi
, who has just won his first
ATP title in Córdoba
.
The first winner of the day was the Chilean
Alejandro Tabilo
, 54th, who defeated the German
Yannick Hanfmann
, 56th, 6-1 and 6-3, and awaits in the second round for the Frenchman
Arthur Fils
, eighth seed, or Serbian
Dusan Lajovic.