Roberto Carballes Baena - Berankis Ričardas

Ricardas Berankis made a poor start to the season as he suffered an upset at the hands of wildcard entrant Cem Ilkel in the first round of ATP Doha earlier this month (6-2 4-6 6-2). It was, in fact, Cem Ilkel's first-ever main draw win on the main tour.
The top-ranked Lithuanian has gone 3-3 in the first round of Australian Open so far in his career with the recent such win coming against Igor Sijsling in five sets in 2015. Since then, he has played two main draw matches here and lost both against Aleksandr Dolgopolov in 2016 and Stan Wawrinka in 2018.
Roberto Carballes Baena is seeking his first main draw win in Melbourne as his only previous such match here ended in a tough five-set defeat against Viktor Troicki in 2019, 1-6 6-1 6-2 1-6 4-6.
World #80 Roberto Carballes Baena played a couple of Challenger events over the last two weeks and won two out of four matches, which includes a quarterfinal appearance in Bendigo Challenger.
These two previously met twice on indoor hardcourts in the last 24 months, with each of them winning on one occasion. The Lithuanian is by far the better player on hardcourt and deservedly starts as the favorite, but the Spaniard is a lot more consistent and should have a fair chance in this clash.

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