Garin claims opening win in Santiago

Former champion and hometown hero Cristian Garin claimed his first tour-level clay-court match win in 10 months Monday night at the Movistar Chile Open.

A champion in Santiago four years ago, Garin survived a scrappy match against fellow 28-year-old Juan Pablo Ficovich 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, converting his fourth match point in the final game of the match after the qualifier had earlier staved off defeat with a bold forehand blast and two clutch drop shots.

"I was really nervous in the beginning," said Garin, who rallied from being a set and a break down against the Argentine. "I was a bit slow and he was playing so good, hitting flat and deep. In the second set I tried to play longer points and I got the rhythm of the match. I was really tight but am so happy with how I played in the last games."

Garin and Alejandro Tabilo are the two players in the field to appear in all six editions of the event. A former No. 17 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Garin now finds himself at No. 147, with just three match wins on the season.

Garin, who converted just three of 16 break point opportunities against Ficovich according to Infosys ATP Stats, awaits the winner of fifth-seeded Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Frenchman Hugo Gaston.

Earlier, Serbian Laslo Djere defeated 20-year-old Peruvian wild card Ignacio Buse 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round. Djere last week won five matches across qualifying and the main draw to reach the semi-finals in Rio de Janeiro, where he won the title in 2019.

German Yannick Hanfmann, a two-time Santiago quarter-finalist, claimed just his second tour-level win of the season with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Argentine Facundo Diaz Acosta, who went 8-2 during last year’s South American clay-court swing but will end this year’s three-tournament run without a victory to his name.