Hard defeat against the 216th in the ATP: Christian Garin bids farewell to the first round of the Punta del Este Challenger

Christian Garin (86th) did not have a good start to the season in 2024. After his brief stint at the ATP in Auckland, from which he had to withdraw during qualifying, and at the Australian Open, where he lost in the first round to the local club. Christopher O’Connell, Gago arrived in Uruguay this week to compete in the Punta del Este Challenger, hoping to end his losing streak, which was unlikely to be the case.

On paper, it would be a tournament more accessible to the national tennis player compared to the previous two. The draw showed that his opponent for this Tuesday’s debut was the experienced Marco Cecchinato, 31 years old and currently 216th in the ATP rankings.

The duel started well for the Arican, who quickly broke the Italian’s serve and even took a 3-1 advantage in the set. However, Gago could not maintain the good level he started at the beginning. He suffered two breaks, which condemned him to lose the first set 6-3.

A reaction from Garin was expected in the second and would thus assert his superiority in the ranking, but this was ultimately far from happening. Despite a break, the Chilean once again showed weakness in his serve and ended up losing the set 6-2, with obvious signs of frustration.

This bad streak of the 27-year-old tennis player comes just a few days before the Davis Cup series in which Chile will face Peru and in which Garin is one of the nominees by Nicolás Massú.

Note that the duels will be played between February 3 and 4, on the Center Court of the National Stadium, which has been repackaged so that matches are not played on clay, but on a hard surface.