Brewer fails to take good form from Houston to Barcelona and loses

Tennis player Gijs Brouwer has been eliminated in the first round of the Barcelona clay court tournament. The world number 121 lost against Argentine Pedro Cachín, the world number 69: 3-6, 5-7.

Brouwer thus failed to follow up his strong performance from earlier this month in Houston. Thanks to three victories over higher-ranked players, he reached the semifinals early this month, in which American Frances Tiafoe beat him.

Whereas Cachín brought in his serves easily each time, Brouwer struggled time and again. Cachín, who has six challenger tournaments on clay, broke Brouwer at 2-1 and did so again at 5-3.

After an early break on both sides, things went even for a long time in set two. Cachín put Brouwer, who so far had won all five of his first-round matches at an ATP tournament, under pressure again at 5-5. After another break, the Argentine won the match.

Tennis players have just begun the clay court season, which climaxes with Roland Garros starting May 28. This week, in addition to Barcelona, there are tournaments in Munich and Banja Luka.

In Munich, Botic van de Zandschulp defends his final place from last year and in Banja Luka Tallon Griekspoor is already eliminated. Novak Djokovic is seeded first there, but is struggling with elbow problems. “Doesn’t feel good,” he announced today.