Rome Masters 1000: Guido Pella gave the surprise of the day and Diego Schwartzman lost again in his debut

It was a special day for Guido Pella at the Masters 1000 in Rome. The player from Bahía Blanca achieved an excellent victory at the expense of the American of French origin Maxime Cressy. The left-hander, who was out of the circuit for almost a year and had almost no ranking, returned to activity last November. Now, with a ranking protected by injury, and from the 484th position in the weekly ranking, he gave one of the surprises in the first stage of the Roman tournament by beating Cressy (41st), established within the Top 50, 6-3 and 6- 4.

Pella, what he will be 33 years old next week, will meet in the second round with the Spanish Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (34th). For Pella, it was his twentieth victory in tournaments of this level, among the most demanding on the tour, and his third this year, after surpassing the first rounds in the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments. He also got his first win at Foro Italico, after three seasons in which he said goodbye to the first (2016, 2019 and 2020). In Masters 1000 on slow courts, he had not won since the Madrid Open 2019, when he beat Russian Daniil Medvedev at the premiere, who was 14th in the ranking at the time.

Due to physical problems and personal situations, Pella played only one game in 2022 and has accumulated 4 wins and 5 wins so far this season. A member of the 2016 Davis Cup champion team, the left-hander had his best year in 2019, when he reached No. 20 in the rankings and reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

The one that will play on Saturday will be the first official duel against Davidovich Fokina. On Italian soil, Pella is accompanied by his family, with his wife Stephanie Demmer, and his little daughter, Arianna.

In the meeting that closed the day in Rome, Diego Schwartzman, 91st in the ranking, ran into the young Italian Matteo Arnaldi (99th), who entered the tournament as a special guest, and defeated the player from Buenos Aires 6-1, 4-6 and 6-3, in almost two hours and night battle stocking; thus, Arnaldi will face his compatriot Lorenzo Musetti in the next stage. El Peque continues to lack celebrations in a season full of troubles, with just 5 wins and 15 losses. Even more: he has accumulated 10 eliminations in the premiere since last January, in a setback that does not seem to have an end.

The Roman Masters 1000 joined the series of premature farewells, after Madrid and the Cagliari Challenger that he played last week. Although Schwartzman fights in every game, and tries to be at his best, celebrations are rare. In his loss to Arnaldi, he totaled 19 winners and committed 31 unforced errors; the balance in the balance was more favorable to the Italian (37 and 38). With the serve, Peque was better with the first serve, but Arnaldi generated many break situations (13), with four breaks made for the Italian; Peque got his only break (out of 4 chances) at the end of the second set.

The other three Argentine tennis players who continue in the Roman tournament will play again this Friday. For the second round, Francisco Cerúndolo (31st), excepted from playing the first round, will face the Chinese Yibing Wu (57th), who has just eliminated the Frenchman Richard Gasquet in three sets; Sebastián Báez (40th) will face the Russian Alexander Shevchenko (93rd), who entered the main draw as a lucky loser to replace the Dutch Tallon Griekspoor, and in the central duel, Tomás Martín Etcheverry (61st) from La Plata will face with the Serbian Novak Djokovic, number 1 in the world, from the 14 in our country.

THE NATION