The Argentine tennis player Guido Pella will face the Brazilian Thiago Monteiro this Thursday and his compatriot Tomás Martín Etcheverry will face the British Andy Murray, in separate matches of the initial round of Indian Wells, the first Masters 1000 series tournament of the year which is played in the Californian desert of the United States.
Pella, relegated to position 739 in the ATP world ranking, will play not before 5:30 p.m. (Argentina time) on court number 5 of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden against the left-handed Monteiro (78), a rival to whom he lost the last time they played, at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro 2020. In the event of going through to the round, Pella will play his next match against the Dutch seed Tallon Griekspoor (36).
For his part, Etcheverry from La Plata, a finalist last Sunday at the ATP 250 in Santiago de Chile, will face off not before 7:00 p.m. with the British Andy Murray (55) on the central court with capacity for 16,000 spectators. In the case of winning, Etcheverry, 23, will play in the next round with the Spanish Pablo Carreño Busta (17).
The contest, which takes place on a cement surface, will distribute prizes of $10,143,750 and will last until Sunday, March 19, and is played jointly between the ATP and the WTA. The top favorite for the title in the men’s draw is the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (2), champion at the Argentina Open last month, while among the women the top seed is the Polish Iga Swiatek (1), who defends the title he won in 2022, and her rival to beat will be the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (2), winner this year of the Australian Open.
As for the Argentines, two made their debut successfully yesterday, Diego Schwartzman and Pedro Cachín; another was eliminated, Federico Coria (he lost to “el Peque”); and another two will appear from Friday: Francisco Cerúndolo and Sebastián Báez, both excepted from the initial round.
The best Argentine in the ranking, Francisco Cerúndolo (32), will debut in the second round against the Frenchman Gregoire Barrere (65) or the American server Jack Sock (154), while the Buenos Aires native Báez (35), this year’s champion at Córdoba Open, he will do it against the Swedish Mikael Ymer (57) or the Australian Rinky Hijikata (130), emerged from the classification.
The contest had only one Argentine champion throughout history, Juan Martín Del Potro from Tandil, who lifted the trophy in the 2018 edition. On that occasion, Del Potro defeated the Swiss Roger Federer, from whom he took the undefeated of the first 18 games of the year.