The third instalment of the ATP Cordoba Open begins on Monday. It is somewhat unique at the moment to have an event with any history so it is quite nice to be revisiting the Argentinian city, even if this would still be described as modern by tennis standards.
Monday consists of the final four qualifying matches and the beginning of the main draw. We preview two of the qualifiers and the main draw matches.
ATP Cordoba Day 1 Predictions
Facundo Bagnis vs Pedro Sakamoto
Head-to-Head Record: Bagnis 2-0 Sakamoto
It is very difficult to see anything in Sakamoto’s favour here. Bagnis is on home clay and has a decent winning record at Cordoba. In addition, he has yet to drop a set to the Brazilian in their previous meetings, albeit both of those were almost six years ago now.
The Argentine is also over 150 spots higher in the rankings than Sakamoto, despite the fact that the Brazilian is hovering around his highest ever ranking at #292. All signs point towards the top seed in qualifying making it into the main draw in Cordoba again.
Prediction: Bagnis in 2
Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs Ernesto Escobedo
Head-to-Head Record: First meeting
This looks like a tricky match for the higher ranked American. Escobedo has been ranked as high as #67 but has a losing record on clay as opposed to the faster surfaces where he has won more matches than he has lost.
Unsurprisingly, Etcheverry has been brought up on Argentine clay and has a good record on the red stuff. His 60% win rate on this surface in his career spells danger for Escobedo and the way that Etcheverry moves so naturally on clay will give the American a lot of problems in rallies. This may be a decisive factor in this match-up.
Prediction: Etcheverry in 2
Daniel Elahi Galan vs Jozef Kovalik
Head-to-Head Record: First meeting
This type of match-up is typical of the Golden Swing, in which a European player comes into the territory of the South American clay court specialist. I don’t have the data to hand but it feels as though this is a scenario which favors the “home” player.
In this case, although Galan is actually Colombian rather than Argentinian, the lower-ranked player is also the owner of the better clay court record on the ATP Tour. The two men have similar records on serve but Galan has proved much more effective in his return games on the red stuff than Kovalik. Expect a similar pattern of play in this game with the Colombian creating more break point opportunities and eventually taking them to win the match.
Prediction: Galan in 2
Jaume Munar vs Nicolas Jarry
Head-to-Head Record: First meeting
The first of two rather controversial wild card entries in the tournament, the former world #38 Nicolas Jarry comes onto the Cordoba court in his first event since his suspension for doping ended in November. Last time out Jarry did win a match in the Concepcion Challenger and fought hard in a three set defeat to the talented Francisco Cerundolo so there are signs of the Chilean’s game returning to him.
However, Jaume Munar has had a positive start to his season. He is already a tournament winner at Challenger Istanbul and he backed this up with another final appearance the week after. The Spaniard has plenty of Golden Swing experience as well, making three consecutive quarterfinal appearances in 2019.
Munar should have the match sharpness and solid baseline game to overcome Jarry. The tall Chilean looks like he may well be dangerous but he may need a couple more weeks to be able to win a match at this level.
Prediction: Munar in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
