The ATP 250 in Auckland (New Zealand) hosted this Tuesday the first round duel between two Spaniards: Roberto Bautista and Roberto Carballés. The tennis player from Tenerife won the match against the player from Castellón in one hour and 44 minutes, after beating his namesake in two sets (6-4 and 6-3).
The task was not easy for Carballés, because on the other side of the court he had Bautista, champion of the New Zealand tournament in 2016 and 2018. The world number 51 did not achieve victory this time and leaves the championship at the first opportunity. after last week he fell in the quarterfinals against the Austrian Sebastián Ofner in Hong Kong (6-4 and 6-4).
“It’s always hard to play against Roberto, he’s a good friend, we trained together and it was very difficult. But I think I played a great game. I was very aggressive and served very well,” said Carballés at the end of the match by way of analysis. The Tenerife native will face Ofner, seventh seed at the ATP 250 in Auckland, in the round of 16.
In parallel, the Valencian Bernabé Zapata was eliminated this Tuesday in the first round of the tournament in Adelaide, Australia, against the Italian Matteo Arnaldi in one hour and 41 minutes (6-4 and 6-3). The San Remo tennis player broke the Spaniard’s serve four times and recorded 65% winning points on the first serve and 76 on the second.
In the doubles draw, Zapata played with Alexander Shevchenko and also lost 6-2 and 6-3 against the Colombian Nicolás Barrientos and the Brazilian Rafael Matos.
Likewise, the Spanish Sara Sorribes was eliminated this Tuesday from the WTA 250 tournament in Hobart (Australia) in the first round. The Polish Magdalena Frech recovered from the initial advantage of the world number 53 and ended up defeating her by 0-6, 6-1 and 6-4.
Sorribes won the first set convincingly 6-0 in just over half an hour, but from the second set onwards, Frech’s aggressiveness took its toll on the Spaniard, who found herself overwhelmed in the second set.
Despite the equality of the third set, the balance tipped in favor of the Pole, who had a 4-1 advantage on the scoreboard. Sorribes fought until the end of the match, leading 4-5 in her favor, but Frech was more successful in the key moments and finally won the duel.
