MADRID, 3 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Roberto Bautista surpassed this Monday his debut in the Astana (Kazakhstan) tournament, in the ATP 500 category and on hard court, with a solid victory over the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in two sets (6-4 and 7-6 (6)).
The one from Castellón, number 21 in the world, surprised an Aliassime, in thirteenth place in the ATP ranking and eighth seed in the tournament, whose last triumphs include those achieved against the Serbian Novak Djokovic and the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz. The Canadian was never as good against Bautista, who raised the level on the slopes of Nur-Sultán to advance to the round of 16.
The game started evenly, with Bautista very concentrated and always putting up with his demanding rival. The prize for his consistency came in game five, when he broke the Canadian’s serve to make it 3-2. The man from Castellón was able to maintain that slight advantage in the rest of the set, and closed the first set 6-4, taking advantage of the second set point.
Bautista did not let go of the accelerator in the second set and began putting a lot of pressure on Aliassime, with the intention of maintaining the positive inertia of the first set. However, the Canadian made a ‘break’ to make it 1-3, but the man from Castellón responded in time with a ‘counter-break’ to recover the distance. Except for some doubts when he served not to lose the match at 4-5, Bautista remained firm towards the tiebreaker, which fell on his side (8-6). His rival in the round of 16 will be the winner of Pavel Kotov-Alejandro Davidovich.
For their part, the Spaniards Pedro Martínez and Bernabé Zapata advanced to the second round of the Tokyo tournament, in the ATP 500 category and which is played on a hard court, after beating the Australian Alexei Popyrin and the Japanese Taro Daniel, respectively.
Martínez got rid of the Australian in two sets (7-5 ??and 6-4) in 1 hour and 44 minutes, with a consistent game from the baseline and withstanding the powerful serves of his rival, who hit up to 11 ‘aces’ during the duel . In the second round he will face the winner of the match between the Norwegian Casper Ruud and the Spanish Jaume Munar.
While Zapata beat the Japanese with a double 7-5, in a match marked by the extreme equality between both tennis players. The Spaniard was more effective and was more successful in the key moments of the game, which lasted two hours and 14 minutes. Her rival in the next round will be the American Frances Tiafoe, who beat the Japanese Yasutaka Uchiyama.
