Australian Open: Tirante and Kicker advanced in Melbourne
Argentines Nicolás Kikcker and Thiago Agustín Tirante advanced on Monday to the second round of the Australian Open tennis qualifying round, the first Grand Slam of the season to be held in Melbourne from January 16 to 29, while their compatriots Federico Delbonis , Facundo Mena, Renzo Olivo, Juan Pablo Ficovich, Genaro Alberto Olivieri were eliminated.
Nicolás Kicker, born in the Buenos Aires city of Merlo and ranked 201 in the ATP world ranking, beat Federico Delbonis (136), a native of the town of Azul, 6-2, 6-2, in the duel among Argentine tennis players.
Kicker will meet in the second round of the qualy against the Czech Dalibor Svrcina (219), who eliminated the British Paul Jubb (218) by beating him 6-3, 1-6 and 6-4.
Meanwhile, Tirante (223) from La Plata beat Facundo Mena (184) from Buenos Aires 6-1, 6-1 in another cross between compatriots.
Tirant will face in the next round against Australian Aleksandar Vukic (129), who beat Canadian Gabriel Diallo (222) 6-3, 6-4.
For his part, Renzo Olivo (183) from Rosario fell in the debut of the qualy against Australian Alex Bolt (639) 6-1, 6-2.
In turn, Genaro Alberto Olivieri (227), from Bragado in Buenos Aires, lost to the Russian Pavek Kotov (118) 7-6 (7-5) and 6-2.
Juan Pablo Ficovich (180), a native of Berazategui, was eliminated by Luciano Darderi (205), born in Villa Gesell and an Italian national, 7-6 (7-3) and 6-3 in 1 hour and 28 minutes.
This Tuesday Marco Trungelliti (224) from Santiago will perform against French Geoffrey Blancaneaux (173), Santiago Rodríguez Taverna (228) from Buenos Aires against Italian Giulio Zeppieri (168) and Facundo Díaz Acosta (198) from Buenos Aires against Dutch Gijs Brouwer (162).
In the women’s division, the Buenos Aires native María Lourdes Carlé (147) will debut this morning, who will face the American Robin Montgomery (218), and the Santa Fe Paula Ormaechea (203), who will face the North American Asia Muhammad (165).