Egor Gerasimov - Carlos Taberner

Egor Gerasimov made the most of Benoit Paire's lapses in concentration to secure a straight-set win in the first round of ATP Nur-Sultan. The mercurial Frenchman led 5-3 in the first set and 3-1 in the second, but the Belarusian did well to fight back and win both sets, 7-5 6-4.
Former Belarusian #1 will now look to score consecutive wins for the first time since ATP Montpellier (IH) back in February 2021, where he defeated the likes of Andy Murray and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to make a rare semifinal appearance on the main tour.
The 28-year-old likes playing on indoor hard courts (141/86 in career) and has enjoyed a lot of success in Kazakhstan (at all levels) as well. In fact, he defeated Lloyd Harris and Jiri Vesely to reach the quarterfinal in the inaugural edition of ATP Nur-Sultan in 2020.
Carlos Taberner recorded only his fourth win on non-clay surfaces this year by upsetting Ricardas Berankis in the first round earlier this week, 7-5 6-4. He has won 36 matches in these nine months, and 32 of those wins have come on his preferred surface on clay.
The 24-year-old Spaniard's previous three second-round matches on the main tour this year as well as his only previous second-round match on indoor hard courts have all ended in losses against Pablo Carreno Busta in Hamburg 2021, Stefano Travaglia in Umag 2021, and Filip Krajinovic in Kitzbuhel 2021 and Lucas Pouille in Montpellier (IH) 2018.
Head-to-head: 0-0. Egor Gerasimov is easily the better player on indoor hard courts, and he has won nearly seven times as many matches as the Spaniard on the surface so far in his career. However, his terrible form over the last seven months gives Carlos Taberner equal chances in the pair's first-ever meeting.