MONTERREY/STARNBERG, March 7, 2022
After one week of women’s tennis at the Club Sonoma in Monterrey, Mexico, the stars of the Challenger Circuit have taken over the action at the 7th edition of the Abierto GNP Seguros, which earned Tournament of the Year honours in its debut season on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2015.
The qualifying of the $106,240 hard-court event kicked off Sunday with 16-year-old home favourite Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez winning his first match at senior’s level. The unranked wild card entry, who made his debut on the Pro Circuit in the qualifying of the ATP 500 event in Acapulco last month losing to Denis Kudla, defeated No. 5 seed and World No. 444 Jonathan Mridha of Sweden 6-1, 6-2.
Pacheco Mendez won 81 per cent of his first-service points and capitalized on five of his six break-point chances to seal victory in 65 minutes. The left-handed teenager earned his first two ATP Ranking points.
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The current World No. 14 in the ITF Juniors Ranking, who captured five titles last year, will next take on US-American Strong Kirchheimer for a spot in the main draw. Kirchheimer benefited from the retirement of his compatriot Roy Smith at the score of 6-3, 5-4.
In other action on Monday, qualifying top seed Aleksandar Kovacevic from the United States will play Mexican alternate Luis Patino. Second favourite Gilbert Klier Junior of Brazil faces US-American William Blumberg, Evan Zhu from the United States will take on his compatriot Gage Brymer, Sho Shimabukuro of Japan will oppose Frenchman Quentin Folliot and Japanese Naoki Nakagawa is the opponent for Sadio Doumbia of France.
