Three of the eight protagonists of the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro will be Argentines
.
Francisco Cerúndolo
was already there
, who had secured his place the day before, and this Thursday he was joined by Buenos Aires natives
Mariano Navone
and
Sebastián Báez
, who in their particular case won an albiceleste duel against
Facundo Díaz Acosta
, who had just become champion in 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.
Invincible no more!
After six wins and twelve sets in a row, @sebaabaez7 stops Buenos Aires champion Diaz Acosta in Rio, 7-6(1) 6-3#RioOpen10Anos pic.twitter.com/haQfQhq50u
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 22, 2024
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, from achieving the unprecedented two-time championship.
The European advanced to the quarterfinals this Thursday without major difficulty against the Chilean
Tomás Barrios
.
In that instance he will face one of the surprises of the tournament, the Brazilian
Thiago Seyboth Wild
, who defeated the Spanish
Jaume Munar
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, number 1 in the albiceleste, will seek against Serbian
Dusan Lajovic
(58) his second pass to a semifinal of the tournament, after 2022, when he was eliminated by his
Diego Schwartzman
.
Lajovic won 6-2, 7-5 in the Serbian clash against Laslo Djere, sixth seed and champion in 2019.