Correntino tennis players are not having good weeks on the international circuit. While Leo Mayer lost in the first round of the Nottingham 2 Challenger, Agustín Velotti fell at Aix en Provence.
“Yaca” Mayer, who is not having a good season and is relegated in the ranking, fell yesterday before the Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan by 3-6, 6-3 and 7-6 (7-1), for the initial round of the Challenger English, which is played on grass and will distribute prizes for 132,280 euros.
Mayer, born in Corrientes and ranked 229 in the ATP world rankings, lost to Ramanathan (211), emerged from the classification, after one hour and 56 minutes of play.
The “Yacaré” Mayer is not going through a good season, without results and with low performances in the last tournaments he played, the most recent the Challenger of Zagreb and Oeiras, where he said goodbye in the second round, and also fell in the first round of the classification to enter Roland Garros.
After competing in the Nottingham 2 Challenger, Leo Mayer will compete to enter the main draw at Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season. The qualy of the London championship will begin on Monday, June 21.
For ten years the Corrientes has not participated in the Wimbledon classification. The last time was in 2011, when he lost in the first round to Czechoslovakian Ivo Minar.
In the event of a negative result in the Wimbledon qualification, he plans to compete in the Porto Challenger at the end of June. This tournament takes place on concrete surface pitches.
Once his participation in this competition has concluded, the Correntino will analyze the steps to follow, and he has two options: enroll in some other challenger or return to the country, and plan for the future, in which the possibility of retirement is present.
On clay
In France, more precisely in the Aix en Provence Challenger, Agustín Velotti (335) fell against Frenchman Arthur Cazaux (451) by 6-3 and 6-0, after one hour and eleven minutes of confrontation.
The man from Corrientes entered the main draw as an alternate and his rival received a wild card (invitation) to be part of the main draw.
Velotti has just reached the semifinals at the Salinas Challenger in Ecuador. Then he showed up in Little Rock and lost in the first round.
In Provence, in addition, the Argentines Facundo Bagnis and Renzo Olivo advanced to the round of 16 by beating the Spanish Javier Barranco Cosano and the Brazilian Oscar José Gutiérrez, respectively, in their debut matches. Andrea Collarini was eliminated from the contest.
Santa Fe, Bagnis, ranked 96th in the ATP world rankings, beat Spanish Barranco Cosano (338) 6-3, 1-6 and 6-1, after one hour and 54 minutes of play.
The native of the city of Armstrong will be measured in the second round of the tournament against Rosario Olivo, located in the 203rd place of the ecumenical tennis ranking, who yesterday defeated the Brazilian Gutiérrez (412), emerged from the previous classification, by 7- 6 (7-4) and 6-3 in one hour and 50 minutes.
While the Argentine nationalized American Andrea Collarini (199) lost to the Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (133) by 6-4 and 6-4, after one hour and 36 minutes of play.
Another Argentine participating in the tournament, Francisco Cerúndolo (116) from Buenos Aires, was installed in the round of 16 on Monday by beating the Frenchman Geoffrey Blancaneaux (327) by 6-2, 4-6 and 6-4.
Cerúndolo, fourth favorite of the tournament, will confront in the next round against the Swede Elias Ymer (182), who yesterday beat the Italian Matteo Viola (251) by 6-4 and 7-6 (7-3).
The French Challenger of Aix en Provence is played on clay courts, distributes a total of 132,280 euros in prizes, was won in its first edition in 2014 by Argentine Diego Schwartzman and had Carlos Berlocq from Buenos Aires as a finalist in 2016.
