MADRID, 30 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis players Roberto Bautista and Alejandro Davidovich beat the Czech Jirí Lehecka and the American Ben Shelton, respectively, in their debuts at the Masters 1,000 in Paris (France), which is played on a hard court, in a somewhat more comfortable match for the from Castellón, while the man from Malaga needed the third set.
Bautista smiled again with his first victory on the ATP circuit in the last four months – he had not won since the semifinals on the grass of the ATP 500 in Halle at the end of June. On this occasion, his ‘victim’ was the world number 30, whom he got rid of in two sets (6-4 and 6-2) and in less than an hour and a quarter.
Taking refuge in a reliable first serve, securing 83% of the points he played with his first serve, Bautista managed to materialize four breaks during the match against Lehecka to confirm that he returns to the circuit with guarantees, after being off the courts for an unfortunate one. His rival in the second round will be the American Sebastian Korda, semi-finalist in the Shanghai Masters 1,000, or the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, runner-up in Basel last week.
For his part, the man from Malaga surprised Shelton, one of the sensations on the circuit and number 16 in the world, in a much more worked match that lasted two and a half hours of play. Davidovich sweated a victory in three sets (7-6 (4), 5-7 and 6-3), neutralizing a toned American who converted 15 aces during the duel.
The match started very evenly, with no one giving up, so the tiebreaker was reached, in which the man from Malaga, in 28th place in the ATP ranking, showed a high level to win the first set on the second set point. This first blow filled Davidovich with confidence for the start of the second shot, in which, however, he went from more to less.
A slump that gave wings to the American sensation, who did not need the tie-break to put his name to the second set (5-7). Already in the final round, Davidovich regained the confidence from the beginning of the match and took advantage of the first break opportunity to make it 4-2. An advantage that he maintained solidly until the end to close the third set 6-3 on the third point of the match.
The man from Malaga will face off in the second round with the winner of the match between the American Christopher Eubanks and the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor.