The Argentine Tomás Etcheverry, who this Wednesday reached the third round at the Australian Open, will have as his rival the Serbian Novak Djokovic, world number one and defending title, in the next instance of the first Grand Slam of the year.
Etcheverry, 24 years old and number 32 in the ATP world ranking, beat French veteran Gael Monfils (76) 6-4, 6-4 and 6-4 in two hours and 14 minutes, and added another great victory in Australia after eliminating the British Andy Murray, former world number one, in the debut.
The man from La Plata will play in the third round against Djokovic, who beat the Australian Alexei Popyrin, 24 years old and 43 in the rankings, by 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) and 6-3. Etcheverry faced the 36-year-old Serbian and winner of 24 Grand Slam tournaments twice in his career. There were two victories for “Nole” in the Masters 1000 in Rome and Paris, in 2023.
“I’m very happy. A huge joy, it was a great game. The atmosphere was very good, very nice, what was experienced. There were fans from both sides, there were many Argentines and many French. It was not easy because there was a lot of energy in the court. But I think I was very good, playing great tennis and that’s why I got the victory. I was able to do what I had been doing the previous days and in training,” Etcheverry declared in dialogue with ESPN.
Etcheverry’s best performance in a Grand Slam came at Roland Garros 2023, when he reached the quarterfinals and was eliminated after losing to German Alexander Zverev in four sets. The one in Australia is already the Argentine’s second best performance in a major tournament.
Etcheverry and Djokovic have a great relationship since some of the Argentine’s posts on social media went viral, when he won his first ATP point and the Serbian was already leading the ranking. At that moment, he took a photo with a poster that showed the difference that the man from La Plata needed to reach him. The photo was repeated when Etcheverry entered the Top 100, already with a much smaller advantage. At Roland Garros 2022, both players took a photo together, while Djokovic praised the Argentine’s ambition.
Since then, they met two other times on the circuit, both with victories for the Balkan. However, now the circumstances are different, since Etcheverry has been showing a lot of solidity, with two resounding victories over Murray and Monfils without leaving sets. On the contrary, Djokovic lost sets in his first two rounds and admitted that he has not yet found his best physical form or the rhythm of his competition at this start of the season.
On the other hand, Sebastián Báez (29) also advanced to the third round of the Australian Open that takes place in the city of Melbourne, by beating the Colombian Daniel Elahi Galán (87). Báez beat Galán 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 and 6-4, in three hours and 17 minutes of play and in the third round he will face a very tough rival, the Italian Jannik Sinner, fourth in the ranking at 22 years old, who beat the Dutch Jesper De Jong (161) in the second round by 6-2, 6-2 and 6-2.
Meanwhile, Francisco Cerúndolo, 21st in the rankings and the Argentine with the best ranking at the moment, fell in the second round against the Hungarian Fabián Marozsan (67) by 7-6 (7-5 in the tie break), 2-6, 6- 2 and 6-4 in two hours and five minutes and said goodbye quickly in the contest. The European will now play against the American Taylor Fritz (12), who eliminated the Frenchman Hugo Gastón (97) 6-0, 6-3 and 6-1.
For the women’s team and in the same instance, Rosario’s Nadia Podoroska (65) was defeated by the American Amanda Anisimova (442) by 6-2 and 6-3 in 66 minutes of play. In the next round, the North American will face the Spanish Paula Badosa (100), who eliminated the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (46) 6-2, 6-3.
2024-01-18 03:01:00
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