• Rodrigo Pacheco, Luis Carlos Alvarez and Luca Lemaitre stand out at the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo 2023.

Los Cabos, August 2, 2023.- The new generation of Mexican tennis players is already a reality and has raised its hand at the ATP 250 in Los Cabos. Juniors Rodrigo Pacheco, Luis Carlos Alvarez and Luca Lemaitre stood out these days at the start of the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo 2023.

In their first steps in international professional tournaments, the three have been gaining experience that will help them in their development in professional tennis.

With the support and encouragement of Mextenis, the three 18-year-old players, who emerged under the Tenis Con Pasión (TCP) player development program, based in Yucatan, have been showing signs of their potential and although they are in their first steps in professional tennis, they are called to be the next Mexican players to follow.

Through wildcards, Pacheco in the main draw and Alvarez and Lemaitre in the qualy, the three young players showed remarkable progress in their participation in the tournament.

The three of us have been training together for two years, which has helped a lot, with Luca and Rodrigo, we are great friends, brothers and great partners,” said Alvarez, who won his first qualy match on Saturday by defeating Brazil’s Eduardo Ribeiro 6-4, 6-4 and although he lost the second match 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, he had a good participation.

Alvarez said that the three of them push each other and motivate each other to keep growing and that has helped them to improve at an individual level.

“We are always at the limit, when we train we all want to win all the time, but it is a healthy competition and that has helped us all to improve our level little by little”, he said after his second match of the qualy where he faced Chilean Gonzalo Lama.

Meanwhile, Lemaitre lost in the first round of qualifying after losing 7-6, 6-4 in a disputed match against Kazakhstan’s Beibit Zhukayev (270 ATP), and Pacheco faced a more experienced opponent, Chile’s Nicolas Jarry (29 ATP), and although both lost, they gained valuable experience in Los Cabos.

Just 5 years ago, Alvarez was playing in the finals of the Cabo Cup children’s tournament, and today at almost 19 years old, which he will be on September 3, he reached the qualy of the ATP 250 in Los Cabos through a wild card.

In the first semester of the year, Alvarez has been developing his tennis with the Sooners of the University of Oklahoma.

While Pacheco faced in the first round of the main draw against Chilean Nicolas Jarry, to whom he lost 6-3, 6-1 leaving his progress evident and taking the best learning from the defeat.

“I am learning, doing things well, sometimes I feel I can give more. I feel that if I do things right, I gain weight, I get physically stronger, logically everything will improve, the speed of my legs, the strength in my serve and my strokes so I hope that soon those things will be reflected and if not, this is a very long race, I do not want to hurry, I want to improve every day to be better so when the time comes to be 100% I will be ready and take advantage of it”, said Pacheco after his match.

• Tommy Paul (No.14) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (No.5) advance to the quarterfinals after their first meeting in Los Cabos.
• 2021 champion Cameron Norrie makes a surprise exit in his first match at the seventh edition of the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo

Los Cabos, August 2, 2023.- The top seeds went into action in the seventh edition of the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo on center court, and with the exception of the elimination of second-seeded Briton Cameron Norrie, the rest of the favorites managed to win, although not without setbacks.

American Tommy Paul (No. 14) opened the third day of activities against Brazilian Felipe Meligeni Alves and although he managed to defeat him 7-5, 7-6(7) in 2 hours and 15 minutes, the Latin took him to a hard-fought tie break in the second set, winning the support of the public present at the Cabo Sports Complex (CSC) for the quality of his points.

In the final, the Acapulco Open 500 finalist managed to handle the pressure of his debut and will now face Australian Alex de Miñaur in a rematch of the Mexican Open final.

In the second match at the Mextenis Stadium, Cameron Norrie (No. 13), second seed of the Los Cabos ATP 250, was surprised by the level of the No. 129, American Alexander Kovacevic.

It is the biggest victory of his career and he advances for the second time to the quarterfinals of an ATP tournament (Seoul 2022). The 24-year-old managed to take Norrie to a tie break in the second set, in a duel that was similar to the previous one, however after tying the 2021 champion, 5-7, 7-6(7) and even though he had to call the physio for a leg massage, he managed to take the third set 6-4 and brought the fans to their feet with his performance.

Kovacevic will now face Germany’s Dominik Koepfer in an unusual quarterfinal, in the same bracket as Tommy Paul and Alex de Miñaur.

Finally, in the stellar match of the third day, top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas (No.5) defeated American John Isner 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 17 minutes. The Greek was solid in his returns and the veteran could not find a way to break the favorite in his debut in Los Cabos. Tsitsipas will face Chile’s Nicolas Jarry in the quarterfinals.

“The first matches seem to be the most important when you enter a tournament. Today was a good match, Isner was protective of his game. I came in with confidence and anticipation of what his next move would be. I dictated the game very mature and very calm,” Stefanos said after the match.

• The Australian and the Chilean easily beat Argentinean Tirante and Dutchman Brouwer.
• Coric and Koepfer, fourth and seventh seeds, also sealed their pass to the quarterfinals.

Los Cabos, August 2, 2023.- Australian Alex de Miñaur and Chilean Nicolás Jarry, fifth and sixth seeds, beat their respective rivals, Argentinean Thiago Agustín Tirante and Dutchman Gijs Brouwer on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo.

The victory of the Australian, champion of the Acapulco ATP 500, was relatively accessible and he closed it out in 65 minutes.

“It’s a matter of finding my game every day, today was a little better and I’m happy to be in the next round where I’m going to have to raise my level to face Tommy Paul,” De Miñaur said at a press conference.
De Miñaur and Paul starred in the final in Acapulco and now they will face each other again in the quarterfinals of Los Cabos.

“It’s going to be a very tough match, as it was in Acapulco”, said the Australian, who is looking for the double in Mexico.

On his part, the sixth seed, the Chilean Jarry advanced to the round of the best eight by achieving a hard-fought 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 victory over the Dutchman Brouwer in two hours and 40 minutes of match.

“There are matches that you have to win no matter what and today was one of those, it is very important because at this level everyone is strong,” said Jarry after the match. The Chilean will play in the next round against the winner of the duel between the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and the American John Isner.

Earlier, fourth-seeded Croatian Borna Coric beat Jason Jung of Chinese Taipei 6-1, 6-2 in 65 minutes of play. Another Croatian, Borna Gojo lost 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 to eighth-seeded Ilya Ivashka, while seventh-seeded German Dominik Koepfer defeated Australian James Duckworth in 70 minutes.

In the quarterfinals, Coric will face Ivashka and German Koepfer will face American Aleksandar Kovacevic.

• Gonzalez and Frenchman Vasselin are the top seeds in doubles

Los Cabos, August 1, 2023.- Mexican Santiago Gonzalez along with Frenchman Eduard Roger Vasselin defeated in two sets the pair formed by Yuki Bhambri, from India, and Ben McLachlan, from Japan, to advance to the quarterfinals of the doubles tournament of the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo.

The Mexican and the Frenchman defeated their rivals 6-3, 6-3 in 73 minutes of play.

Gonzalez’s victory brightened up a day that reported singles defeats for Mexicans Rodrigo Pacheco and Ernesto Escobedo, who lost to Chile’s Nicolas Jarry and Jason Jung, from Chinese Taipei, respectively.

In the next round, Gonzalez and Vasselin will face the winner of the match between Mexicans Miguel Reyes Varela and Hans Hach Verdugo, who will play against British Julian Cash and American Robert Galloway.

• The Acapulco champion (No. 19), fifth seed of the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo, fulfilled the predictions of his first match.

Los Cabos, August 1, 2023.- Everything indicates that the environment of Los Cabos also favors the champion of the last edition of the Acapulco Open. Australian Alex de Miñaur (No.19), seems to have found comfort in his game after defeating by double 6-4 in 1 hour 45 minutes to the qualified Skander Mansouri in what was the first match between the two.

“It wasn’t the perfect match, it wasn’t my perfect tennis but happy to get the match out of the way and give myself a chance to be able to play better tomorrow. If I can lift a title here it would be amazing but I don’t think it’s going to define my year either” he shared in perfect Spanish after the match.

It was the 180th victory on the ATP tour for de Miñaur, who also maintains his undefeated first round record this season. With a solid return, the 296th-ranked Tunisian could only break his serve twice and leaves the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo without his first ATP main draw victory (0-4).

To close the activity at the Cabo Sports Complex (CSC) stadium, Borna Gojo manage to surprise Chilean Cristian Garin (No. 101). The Latin American found a complicated challenge against the Croatian, as their duel extended to three sets. In the first set, despite the aces that began to rain on his serve, he was surprised when he was unable to break his serve, but by the second he managed to acclimatize to the duel to put the result 5-7, 6-4 partially. Finally in the third set he lost 3-6.

In Grandstand action, after the defeat of Mexican representative Ernesto Escobedo, Ilya Ivashka managed to advance to the second round after a hard-fought match against 22-year-old Kazakh qualifier Beibit Zhukayev by 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5).

In other results, German Dominik Koepfer knocked out Chilean Tomas Barrios Vera 6-4, 6-3, while Otto Virtanen lost to Australian James Duckworth 6-3, 6-1.

DOUBLES RESULTS:

Santiago Gonzalez/Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-3 Yuki Bhambri/Ben McLachlan.

Diego Hidalgo/Cristian Rodriguez 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-0 N.Sriram Balaji/Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan

William Blumberg/Rinky Hijikata 6-3, 7-6 Evan King/Reese Stalder

Nicolas Barrientos/Andre Goransson 4-6, 7-6(9), 10-7 Patrik Niklas-Salminen/Bart Stevens

• Pacheco lost to Chilean Jarry and Escobedo to Jung, from Chinese Taipei.

Los Cabos, August 1, 2023.- Mexicans Rodrigo Pacheco and Ernesto Escobedo said goodbye this Tuesday to the seventh edition of the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo, but they did so competing against more experienced rivals with a high level of competition.

Pachecho, 18, lost in two sets to Chile’s Nicolas Jarry, 27, while Escobedo lost in three sets to Jason Jung, from Chinese Taipei, who reached the main draw as a lucky loser.

Although Pacheco’s score is tough and relentless, the Mexican junior showed progress that will help him in his step to professionalism and he was seen without pressure and trying to give his best.

The Mexican started the match settled on the court facing a loose Jarry and forced to win.

In the first set, the Mexican was 2-3, but in the sixth game Jarry broke and defended his serve for 2-5, then Pacheco defended his serve and the Chilean closed for 6-3.

In the second set, Jarry used his experience and managed to break the Mexican’s serve three times to close the set 6-1.

It was not an easy match for Jarry, (No. 26), as the Mexican demanded him to play up to 80 minutes of the match.

“He started solid in the first set, but in the second I raised the level and it was a little more difficult for him. He’s a good kid, you can see his potential, he’s fast and left-handed. Now the important thing is that he stays humble and hardworking because it’s not easy to reach the top and that he keeps improving his head”, said Jarry about the Mexican after the match.

Earlier, Ernesto Escobedo gave hope to the Mexican fans by beating Jung 6-3 in the first set. But for the second, Jung reacted and the physical background played against the national born in California, who in spite of it managed to take the set to a tie break so that finally Jung did not give him a chance and won 7-5. In the third, Escobedo, already exhausted, surrendered the set 6-2.

• Mexico’s Rodrigo Pacheco and Ernesto Escobedo bowed out on the first day of the tournament.

Los Cabos, July 31, 2023.- American John Isner and Brazilian Felipe Meligeni recorded wins on Monday in the first day of the seventh edition of the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo, which saw the Mexican pair of Rodrigo Pacheco and Ernesto Escobedo bid farewell.

The experienced Isner (No. 114) won 6-2, 6-2 against Australian Rinky Hijikata (No.110), while Milegeni (No.177) defeated Chilean Alejandro Tabilo (No.122) 6-2, 6-4.

Both Isner and Meligeni defeated their opponents to advance to the second round. Now Isner will face Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (5 ATP and top seed) and Meligeni will face American Tommy Paul, third seed.

Meligeni resolved the match practically without surprises, the same route that Isner tried to follow, who was demanded by Hijikata at the end of the second set to take things to the tie break where he brought out his experience and his epic serve.

In other results, the Dutchman Gijs Brouwer defeated the Canadian Gabriel Diallo by 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, the Argentine Thiago Agustin Tirante beat the Chilean Gonzalo Lama by 7-6 (3), 6-2 and in a duel between Americans Aleksandar Kovacevic (USA) defeated by 6-2, 7-5 Omni Kumar, who came from the qualifiers.

In the only doubles match of the day, Venezuelan Luis David Martinez and Saketh Myneni, from India, defeated Mexican Ernesto Escobedo and Rodrigo Pacheco by 6-3, 2-6, 10-5.

-TUESDAY, AUGUST 1

SECOND DAY, SINGLES FIRST ROUND

(5)Alex de Miñaur (AUS) – Skander Mansouri (TUN)

Rodrigo Pacheco (MEX) – (6) Nicolás Jarry (CHI)

Cristian Garin (CHI) – Borna Gojo (CRO)

Ernesto Escobedo (MEX) – Jason Jung (TPE)

Beibit Zhukayev (KAZ) – Ilya Ivashka (BLR)

Dominik Koepfer (GER) – Tomás Barrios Vera (CHI)

Otto Virtanen (FIN) – James Duckworth (AUS)