Tomas Etcheverry He had an outstanding day and showed lucidity and temperance to overcome difficult moments. The tennis player from La Plata achieved a hard-fought victory against the rising Italian Flavio Cobolli and began his foray into the Australian Open. Besides, Francisco Cerúndolo and Facundo Díaz Acosta were the other Argentines who were successful in the initial round and continue in the first Grand Slam of the year, where Camilo Ugo Carabelli, Francisco Comesaña and Federico Coria were eliminated in the early hours of this Tuesday.
With Horacio de la Peña as the new driver, Etcheverry (38th in the world) saw the first set narrowly escape him in the tie break, but he did not lose his head and won three consecutive sets to seal a 6-7 (8 -10), 6-3, 7-5 and 6-1. A great victory against Cobolli, 22 years old and 32nd in the ranking, who, although he has not yet won titles on the circuit, is part of the new rich generation of Italian players led by world number 1, Jannik Sinner. Although they did not record confrontations in the main draw of a tournament, curiously they had crossed paths in the third stage of the qualification for the 2022 Australian Open, when Etcheverry also beat him, that time in two sets.
This is the third consecutive time that the player from La Plata successfully goes through the first round of the competition that takes place in Melbourne: in 2023, Sinner eliminated him in the second round; In 2024, meanwhile, he had a good performance: he took out Andy Murray and Gael Monfils before falling in the third match against Novak Djokovic.
For the second round, Etcheverry will have the American Marcos Giron on the way (31 years old, 46th in the ranking), who beat the German Yannick Hanfmann 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 and 7-5. It is the North American’s first victory on Australian soil in his sixth foray into this Grand Slam. Etcheverry lost the only time he faced Giron: in 2022, at the ATP 250 in San Diego.
Belgium
