Spanish tennis players Albert Ramos and Bernabe Zapata They advanced to the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro by winning their respective commitments on Thursday, so they have to face off on Friday.
Ramos, number 47 in the ATP and seventh favorite in Rio, defeated the Colombian 6-2, 6-4 Daniel Galan (88 ATP) in a match of one hour and 21 minutes in which the Catalan was widely hegemonic.
Zapata (63 ATP), for his part, prevailed 6-4, 4-6 and 6-1 in a close match of one hour and 43 minutes against the Argentine Francisco Cerundolo (33 ATP), is the fourth favorite in the Brazilian tournament and he reached the semifinals in 2022.
The victory confirms the high career of the Valencian, who this week reached his best position in the ATP ranking (63) after being a semifinalist at the Argentina Open, an occasion where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz, the number two in the world .
Zapata, who last year reached the round of 16 at Roland Garros and the quarterfinals at the ATP 250 in Umag, reached the semifinals this year at the ATP 250 in Argentina and the quarterfinals at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro.
The 26-year-old Spaniard, coached by Carlos Navarro, started strongly, easily confirming his first two serves and promptly breaking the Argentine’s first two to quickly open up a 4-0 lead in just 15 minutes.
Despite the fact that the 24-year-old tennis player from Buenos Aires scored on his third serve, the Valencian won the set 6-1 in 27 minutes.
The Spaniard, who last year reached the round of 16 at Roland Garros and the quarterfinals at the ATP 250 in Umag, came back for the second set with the same enthusiasm and, after a contested first game, broke Cerundolo’s first serve and go back to start over.
But the South American responded in the same way and left everything the same (1-1).
The reaction was enough for the Argentinian to grow into the game, equalize and break Zapata’s serve again to take a slight 5-2 advantage. Despite the fact that the Valencian also knows how to react, break a serve and reduce the lead, Cerundolo responded in the same way and won the set 6-4, leveling the game and forcing a third set.
Zapata came back full force for the tiebreaker and quickly broke Buenos Aires’ first two serves to open a 4-0 lead, which he carried to the end, when he prevailed 6-1.
In the other game, the 35-year-old Ramos, ranked 17th in the international rankings, started strongly and broke the first serve of the Colombian, who had led from the first game.
Also, he prevented the South American from scoring on his third serve, where, after 28 minutes, he won the first set 5-1.
The Catalan just had to be patient to prevail in the first set 6-2 in 38 minutes.
The second set was more even and both tennis players scored on their serves and maintained parity until the seventh game, when Ramos broke Galán’s serve and opened up a 5-3 lead, which he maintained until the end to win 6-4.
The ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro, taking place on the clay courts of Brazilian Jockey Club and distributes prizes for 2.2 million dollars, is part of the tour on clay in South America, which began with the Córdoba Open and Argentina Open, and ends next week with the ATP 250 in Santiago (Chile).
Source: La Verdad
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