Alejandro Davidovich recovered the dominating version that made him a finalist in Monte Carlo and debuted with a solvent and clear victory against Lloyd Harris: 7-5 and 6-3 in 78 minutes. The 22-year-old from Malaga and 29th in the world took revenge on the South African of 25 and 38th, who had beaten him last year in Indian Wells by a double 6-3, and will face on Wednesday in the second round the Polish Hubert Hurkacz or the Bolivian Hugo Dellien.
One of the keys to Davidovich’s triumph was his good day with the serve. He won 89% of points with firsts and 65% with seconds, losing only 12 on serve and saving the only break point Harris had. He converted two of the three he had, one in each set. “It was not easy to play against Lloyd at height, because he serves very well (seven aces). The first set was very difficult and I took advantage of the first opportunity I had”said the winner.
The break with which he won the first round gave wings to the Spaniard, who grew on seeing that he was superior to his rival on clay. Now, Alex will try to improve on his result from last year, when he could not overcome the second fence when he fell to the Russian Daniil Medvedev, absent on this occasion.
Pedro Martínez succumbs to De Miñaur
Pedro Martínez tried to come back against Alex de Miñaur, but fell short and the Australian based in Alicante won 7-6 (2) and 1-6 and 6-3 in 2h44. Too bad, because the Valencian had two set points at 6-5 in the first set that escaped him. In the second, he submitted his rival with ease, but the problem of wasted break balls returned in a third set that he lost three times to serve him. De Miñaur, number 23 in the ranking, will face the Italian Jannik Sinner, tenth favorite, who beat the American Tommy Paul with difficulty (6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) and 6-3). So many that he had to pick up a 5-2 lead and three match points in the second set.