The Argentine Sebastián Báez defeated Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 and 6-3 on Monday in his absolute debut at Roland Garros, whose second round will take on the number three in the world, the German Alexander Zverev, who beat the Austrian Sebastian Ofner in straight sets, coming from the previous classification.
The 21-year-old from Buenos Aires, since Monday the second best South American tennis player today behind Diego Schwartzman (16th), prevailed after 2 hours and 25 minutes of play on court number 5 of the Parisian tennis complex.
His first experience in the Grand Slam on clay will have a highly demanding test in the next round with the confrontation against a Zverev who was a semifinalist in the 2021 edition and who aspires to his first “major” title this season.
The German recently prevailed over the Argentine in the only precedent on the ATP circuit, valid for the second round of the Masters 1000 in Rome, on the same surface.
Báez, number 36 in the world and winner this year of his first ATP tournament (Estoril), became the third tennis player in the country to overcome the initial round of Roland Garros 2022 after Schwartzman and Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
The fate of Santiago Rodríguez Taverna was different, who battled for five sets, but finally fell to the American Taylor Fritz (13th) 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6 and 6-4.
Another who said goodbye in the first round was Francisco Cerúndolo, who lost to British Daniel Evans (29th) 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-4.
At 3hr 34min thriller ??@Taylor_Fritz97 advances to the second round, fighting off qualifier Santiago Rodriguez Taverna 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.#Roland Garros pic.twitter.com/VAz8wgNiSw
– Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 23, 2022
More Argentines in the first round
Four Argentine tennis players will also appear for the first round of Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam of the season that began this Sunday in Paris.
The scheduled matches are as follows:
-Federico Coria vs. Alex Molcan (Slovakia).
– Sebastian Baez vs. Dusan Lajović (Serbia)
-Pedro Cachin vs. Norbert Gombos (Slovakia).
-Tomas Etcheverry vs. Miomir Kecmanovic (Serbia).
