Valuable Argentine celebration at Wimbledon: Sebastián Báez got his first victory on the grass of the British Grand Slam

Sebastian Baezone of the most outstanding tennis players of the new Argentine generation and champion this year of the Estoril ATP, beat the Japanese Taro Daniel (118th in the ranking; 29 years old) in his All-time debut in Wimbledon main draw. The player born in Billinghurst, party of San Martín, won 6-4, 6-4 and 7-5, in 2h21m of action on court 11, and advanced to the second round of the third Grand Slam of the season, where it will be measured -for the first time- against David Goffin (Belgium; 58th), who beat Radu Albot (Moldova; 113th) 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

Báez, 21 years old and 35th in the world ranking (his best position was 34th two weeks ago), had already obtained the first victory of his career on grass seven days ago, at the opening of the ATP 250 in Mallorca (against Australian Jordan Thompson; then fell to German Daniel Altmaier). But now he had a great pleasure obtaining a success in the most prestigious contest of the circuit, the most complex for the Argentines (last year, Báez had lost in the first round of the classification, before the Australian Matthew Ebden, a specialist in the surface). In addition to the great work of Báez, on the second day of Wimbledon the victory of Diego Schwartzman (12th) over the American Stefan Kozlov by 6-3, 6-2 and 6-2 also stood out.

Báez, who participated twice in Wimbledon as a junior (in 2017 and 2018, without winning matches), secured a prize of 78,000 pounds (approximately $96,000). For Daniel, 64th in the world in 2018, it was his fifth participation in the All England (he never got past the first round). Báez hit three aces, committed three double faults, got 73% first serves, got 69% points with the first serve and 50% with the second. achieved 39 winnershe made 50 unforced errors and took 24 of the 37 points he played at the net.

The other two triumphs of Báez (right-handed, 1.70m, trained by Sebastián Gutiérrez) in Grand Slam competitions were also this year: in Australia against the Spanish Albert Ramos Viñolas and at Roland Garros against the Serbian Dusan Lajovic.

After a very successful 2021, in which he won six Challenger Tour trophies (the second category of professional tennis) and climbed 212 positions (started 311th; finished 99th), Báez is continuing his evolution and taking a leap in quality. Last February he reached his first ATP final: it was in Santiago de Chile, where he lost to Spaniard Pedro Martínez. In March he debuted with a lot of personality in the Argentine Davis Cup team (victory against the Czech Jiri Lehecka). In April, at the start of the European tour on clay, he overtook the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 qualifier. And she won her first ATP trophy, in Estoril, after beating American Frances Tiafoe in the final.

“I am happy to have overcome the debut. At times I was a little nervous. At first it was cloudy, a few drops fell, they wouldn’t let me start. But luckily it didn’t rain and it was possible to play in a row. This is a totally different surface, where you play for a few weeks, but I like the grass, it’s kind of fun. I even take it as if it were a Play game, in which you have to think of different things that help me, play with sliceupload online… It is a surface that forces you to manage speeds all the time and you have to be brave, ”said Báez, on ESPN.

The match between Báez and Daniel was scheduled for yesterday, but the piling up of matches due to bad weather conditions made the organization move it to today. “Yesterday (on Monday) was a long day,” he added. I found out at 6 pm that the game was going to be played today. I was already warm. But they are things that happen. Here in London it rains and stops. I tried to be my best for today.”