Díaz Acosta and Trungelliti get off to a good start in Barcelona | ATP Tour

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Díaz Acosta and Trungelliti get off to a good start in Barcelona

The Argentines debuted with victories this Monday

April 15, 2024

Facundo Díaz Acosta was the first player to get a ticket to R2 of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.
By ATPTour.com/es Staff

The Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell began with the main draw matches this Monday and the Argentines Facundo Díaz Acosta and the qualifier Marco Trungelliti signed their pass to the second round.

The first to achieve this was Díaz Acosta, with a final score of 6-1 and 6-4 after an hour and a half of play, the left-hander was able to leave guest Daniel Rincon behind.

Champion in Buenos Aires for the first time, the Argentine with powerful shots won again at ATP Tour level after two months without victories after the ATP250 in Santiago de Chile against his compatriot Pedro Cachin.

The Argentine became strong from the serve, giving up just four points in the entire match with his first serve (20/24) and without giving up the serve, in addition to getting three breaks against the Spaniard, to achieve a solid victory.

In the second round of the Conde de Godó, Díaz Acosta will face the former No. 12 of the PIF ATP World Ranking and current No. 32: Borna Coric, who began his path in the tournament directly in the round of 32.

For his part, Marco Trungelliti also earned his place in the second round. At 34 years old and as world No. 197, he defeated Croatian Duje Ajdukovic 6-2 and 7-6 (3). After passing the classification, he will now be Nicolás Jarry’s first rival. The Chilean leads the Lexus ATP Head2Head at this level, after beating him in this same tournament in his debut last season. Meanwhile, for ‘Trunge’ it was his first win in a main draw at the ATP Tour level since the 2021 US Open, and the first in his career in an ATP 500 event.

Likewise, Roberto Bautista Agut is one victory away from a great milestone at home, at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. The former PIF ATP Rankings No. 9 defeated Roman Safiullin 6-3, 7-6 (8) on Monday at the ATP 500 clay court event for his 399th career win.

Bautista Agut’s reward for leveling his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Safiullin at 1-1 is a second-round meeting with seventh seed Karen Khachanov. The Spaniard, who turned 36 on Sunday, is seeking his twelfth crown on the ATP Tour this week. On the other hand, Monday was a memorable day in Barcelona for Nick Hardt. The 23-year-old qualifier beat local #NextGenATP favorite Martin Landaluce 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Court Rafa Nadal to win in his ATP Tour main draw debut. Hardt became the first Dominican to win an ATP Tour match since Víctor Estrella Burgos in Quito in 2018.

“It was a crazy day, obviously a very special day,” Hardt told ATPTour.com. “I feel at home here in Barcelona. Two weeks ago I won my first Challenger here, this week I qualified for my first ATP 500 and I just won my first Tour match in the main draw.”

“Here I have a special connection with the public, with the Spanish public. I am also very happy with the Dominican public who came to support me today. I am very happy to have gone to the second round.”

In addition, Brandon Nakashima and Harold Mayot also booked their place in the second round. Nakashima beat 2023 semi-finalist Daniel Evans 7-6(5), 6-2 and will face second seed Andrey Rublev, while Mayot beat Pedro Cachin 7-6(5), 2-6, 6 -3 and will face Cameron Norrie. Matteo Arnaldi also advanced. The Italian, world number 40, was tied at 5-5 in the first set with Arthur Cazaux when the Frenchman was forced to retire after twisting his ankle.