Tirante, Navone and Sierra, Argentina's Thursday wins in Rome | OneFootball

Argentine tennis player Thiago Tirante, 25, debuted at the highest ATP ranking of his career (No. 69) with a hard-fought victory on the clay courts of the Foro Italico. In the first round of the Rome Masters 1000, he defeated local wild card Gianluca Cadenasso (No. 183) 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-0 in two hours and nine minutes.

In the best season of his career, the La Plata native claimed his fifth win at Masters 1000 level, the most prestigious tournaments after the Grand Slams. On the Supertennis Arena court, which seats 3,000 spectators, the Buenos Aires Province player recovered from what began as a tricky challenge, hit 21 forehand winners, served eight aces, committed no double faults, landed 56% of his first serves, winning 81% of points on his first serve (38 of 47) and 65% on his second. He broke Cadenasso’s serve five times.

Tirante’s next opponent in Rome will be Britain’s Cameron Norrie, world No. 19 and the No. 17 seed. They have faced each other only once, and it was just a few days ago, in the third round in Madrid: the European left-hander, coached by Argentine Facundo Lugones, won 7-5, 7-6 (7-5). In the live rankings, Tirante—coached by Miguel Pastura—climbs six spots to No. 63.

The other men’s win of the day came from Mariano Navone. The player from 9 de Julio defeated Canadian Denis Shapovalov (No. 37) 6-4, 6-2, an excellent victory against a talented left-hander whom he managed to trouble and draw into his own game.

Navone (No. 44) finished his opening match with very strong numbers. He won 75 percent of the points on his first serve; he created many break chances (15), converting five of them. Level on winners (15), the Argentine made the difference with his forehand, producing 12 winners with that shot. And another decisive factor was errors: Shapovalov collapsed with 37 unforced errors; more consistent, the player from 9 de Julio made just 13. Curiously, Navone will face another Canadian in the next round, but a more highly ranked one: Felix Auger-Aliassime, world No. 5. La Nave won their only previous meeting last year on the clay courts of the Munich tournament.

In the women’s draw, Solana Sierra took another successful step during a very good spell. The Mar del Plata native, ranked No. 72, beat Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina (No. 93) convincingly, 6-2, 6-3, and advanced to the third round at the Foro Italico. Sierra broke Kalinina’s serve six times from 11 opportunities and posted a good first-serve percentage (76%).

That said, for the only Argentine woman in the draw, the challenge will rise almost to the very top, because in the third round she will face American Coco Gauff, world No. 4, who is coming off a 6-3, 6-4 win over Czech player Tereza Valentova. There is only one previous meeting between them, in January at the mixed-team United Cup in Australia, where Gauff won decisively, 6-1, 6-1.

On the other hand, there were two defeats in the men’s draw. In the first match of the day, Román Burruchaga (No. 56) fell to local player Mattia Bellucci (No. 80) 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 54 minutes. The Italian controlled the match with solid serving (winning 76% of points that way, compared with 59% for Burru) and finished with 31 winners and 36 unforced errors; here, the Argentine managed only 7 winners and made 24 errors.

The other loss was suffered by Juan Manuel Cerúndolo (No. 72), against Chile’s Cristian Garín (No. 104), 7-6 (7-2), 7-5. The Argentine left-hander created more break chances (2/11), but paid a high price for his lack of efficiency in converting them; Garín took 3 of his 9 opportunities. In a tight match, Cerúndolo ended with 29 winners and 32 unforced errors; 30 winners and 38 errors for Garín, who in the second round will meet Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, a player coached by Mariano Puerta.

Action in Rome will continue this Friday, with the start of the second round and this schedule for the Argentines:

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.