The South American tour of tournaments on clay suits Sebastián Báez,
who this Friday defeated the Spaniard Jaume Munar 6-4 in one hour and 48 minutes to advance for the third consecutive year to the semifinals of the
ATP 250 in Santiago de Chili.
In this way, he defends the 100 points he obtained last year for also reaching the semis, an instance in which he lost to Tomás Etcheverry.
In 2022, meanwhile, he fell in the final with Spanish Pedro Martínez, who could be his next rival, and now he will seek to be champion for the first time in the Chilean capital and repeat the title he obtained last week in Rio de Janeiro .
In addition, he is the only tennis player who reached, at least, the quarterfinals in each of the four tournaments on the tour: he was a semifinalist in
Córdoba
, where Luciano Darderi eliminated him, he reached the quarterfinals in
Buenos Aires
(Federico Coria) , lifted the trophy in
Rio
and now reaches the final days of the competition again.
Everyone wants a photo with @sebaabaez7!
🤩
The Argentine scores his seventh consecutive victory and advances to the semifinal of the Chile Open for the third consecutive year 🌟.
pic.twitter.com/XaAv0ZLEiR
— Chile Open (@chile_open) March 1, 2024
Báez, 23 years old, makes the most of this stretch of the season.
He will be playing in the eleventh semifinal of his career and five of the previous ten were in these latitudes.
He has a record of 7-3 and will be looking to win the sixth title of his career and extend his winning streak.
As if that were not enough, he is the tennis player who has added the most points in the last month in South America and could enter the Top 20 of the ATP ranking for the first time in his career.
Today he is ranked 22nd, five points behind
Francisco Cerúndolo,
and he will surpass him if he wins his next match against Pedro Martínez or Arthur Fils.
And if he wins the title he will displace Adrian Mannarino from 20th place and could even reach 19th place if the Kazakh Alexander Bublik loses the final of the ATP 500 in Dubai, on Saturday against the Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
Chile Open schedule
Court Jaime Fillol
Sebastián Báez (ARG) to Jaume Munar (ESP), 6-4 and 6-4.
Alejandro Tabilo (CHI) vs.
Luciano Darderi (ITA), not before 6 p.m.
Nicolás Jarry (CHI) vs.
Corentin Moutet (FRA), not before 7 p.m.
Court 1
Pedro Martínez (ESP) vs.
Arthur Fils, LIVE