Three of the eight protagonists of the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro will be Argentines. Was already Francisco Cerúndolowho had secured his place the day before, and this Thursday the people of Buenos Aires joined him Mariano Navone y Sebastian Baezwho in his particular case won an albiceleste duel against Facundo Díaz Acostawho had just been champion at the Argentina Open.
Báez, 30th in the world ranking, brought down Díaz Acosta (59) from the clouds, who arrived with a swollen chest after winning the Buenos Aires Open last week, his best achievement so far in his career.
The third best racket in Argentina won with sets 7-6 (7/1) and 6-3 in a tight duel of one hour and 48 minutes on the brick dust of court 1 of the Jockey Club.
Eliminated last year in the quarterfinals by the Chilean Nicolás Jarry, Báez will fight for a place in the semifinals on Friday with the winner of the duel that faces the Brazilians Thiago Monteiro (117) and Felipe Meligeni (153) this Thursday.
For his part, Mariano Navone (113), after having won his first match in an ATP in the initial round of Rio Janeiro against Federico Coria (85) from Rosario, clearly defeated the German Yannick Hanfmann (56) by a resounding 6-1 and 6-2, after just 1 hour and 17 minutes of play.
The Buenos Aires native from 9 de Julio, who has already entered the Top 90 of the ranking, will face in the quarterfinals against the Chilean Cristian Garín (88) or Joao Fonseca (655), the 17-year-old promise of Brazilian tennis, who They measured in the last match of the day.
Báez and Francisco Cerúndolo (22), fourth seed, are the main obstacles to prevent the British Cameron Norrie (23), second seed, achieved the unprecedented two-time championship. The European advanced to the quarterfinals this Thursday without major difficulty against the Chilean Thomas Barrios.
In that instance he will face one of the surprises of the tournament, the Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wildwho defeated the Spanish James Munar by 6-2, 4-6 and 6-3 in a match that was interrupted on Wednesday by a strong storm that forced it to be postponed to this Thursday.
It had been seven years since a Brazilian had reached the quarterfinals of the Rio Open, the only ATP 500 in South America.
“It is always difficult to play a match that lasts two days. Yesterday I started well, I was loose and he was more tense. Today it was the opposite. He started better and I was a little more nervous, but I managed to get back to the same rhythm as yesterday and now for “For the first time I am in the quarterfinals of an ATP 500.”Wild declared.
Cerúndolo, albiceleste number 1, will look for the Serbian Dusan Lajovic (58) his second pass to a semifinal of the tournament, after 2022, when he was eliminated due to his Diego Schwartzman.
Lajovic won 6-2, 7-5 in the Serbian clash against Laslo Djere, sixth seed and champion in 2019.
2024-02-23 01:50:22
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