The Argentines Diego Schwartzman and Guido Pella were eliminated this Thursday in the round of 16 of the Cincinnati tennis Masters 1000, when they fell to the Norwegian Casper Ruud 6-4 and 6-3 and the German Alexander Zverev 6-2 and 6 -3, respectively, in the tournament that is part of the pre-US Open cement tour, which will begin on Monday, August 30 in New York.
The “Peque” Schwartzman, located in the 14th place in the ecumenical ranking of tennis, lost against the rising Norwegian Ruud (11), after 1 hour and 21 minutes of confrontation. The porteño had settled into the round of 16 after leaving the British Daniel Evans (28) and the American Frances Tiafoe (51) on the road.
Despite the defeat, Peque has a favorable record over Ruud, whom he beat four times, in Australia, Rio de Janeiro and Hamburg, in 2018, more last year in the Cincinnati edition that was played in New York due to the pandemic of coronavirus; while he lost in 2021, twice: in Monte Carlo and tonight in this American contest.
Schwartzman won the Argentina Open this year, the fourth title of his career, while Ruud, also a champion in Buenos Aires, in 2019, won the Geneva, Bastad, Gstaad and Kitzbuhel tournaments.
Previously, Pella from Bahia, 31 years old and ranked 93rd in the ATP world rankings, was surpassed by Zverev (5), the best tennis player of the moment, after 1 hour and 13 minutes of play.
The Bahia Blanca left-hander, in a much improved version compared to what he had shown during the year, had installed himself in the round of 16 after leaving Belgian David Goffin (19) and Italian Fabio Fognini (36) on the road. , so despite the loss to Zverev, he leaves Cincinnati with good feelings and looking more optimistically at what remains of 2021.
With the fall of the Argentine, the record between the two increased in favor of the European, who won the three times in which they faced each other. Previously, he had won two finals: the 2015 Heilbronn Challenger and the 2017 ATP Munich ATP, both in Germany.
The Cincinnati Masters 1000 does not have in its current edition the 2020 champion, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, nor the Spanish Rafael Nadal, who will play again in the US Open that will take place in New York the last week of August and first of September.
For their part, two other figures, the Swiss Roger Federer, seven times champion in Cincinnati, and the Austrian Dominic Thiem, announced in recent days that they will not play again for the remainder of 2021 due to injuries to the right knee and wrist. right, respectively.
The top favorite for the title is the Russian Daniil Medvedev (2), champion of the 2019 edition of the contest and also winner last Sunday of the Masters 1000 in Montreal, in Canada, who on the day eliminated the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (21) by beating him by 6-2 and 6-3.
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