Carlos Taberner, a 22-year-old Spaniard ranked 198th in the world, upset seventh-seeded countryman Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Monday in the opening round of the Cordoba (Argentina) Open.
The victory was just the second ever for Taberner in an ATP Tour event. In his only two prior main-draw appearances, he got to the second round at Montpellier, France, in 2018, and he lost in the opening round of the 2018 French Open.
Sixth-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay posted a 7-5, 6-2 win over Argentina’s Federico Delbonis. Other first-round winners in Cordoba were Gianluca Mager of Italy and Attila Balazs of Hungary.
Open Sud de France
Slovakia’s Norbert Gombos rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over sixth-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain in the first round at Montpellier, France.
Gombos, who is ranked No. 104, fired nine aces without a double fault, with seven of the aces coming in the second set.
In the day’s other action, Canada’s Vasek Pospisil beat Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4, and France’s Gregoire Barrere outlasted Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Tata Open Maharashtra
Both seeded players in action recorded first-round wins in Pune, India.
Fifth-seeded Yuichi Sugita of Japan cruised past Italy’s Thomas Fabbiano 6-3, 6-0 in 72 minutes, but seventh-seeded Salvatore Caruso of Italy needed 2:23 to get past India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Serbia’s Viktor Troicki defeated India’s Sumit Nagal 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-1, and Germany’s Cedrik-Marcel Stebe got past Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
