Spanish tennis player World number two Carlos Alcaraz beat Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 7-6 (0) this Friday. (80 ATP), reaching the quarterfinals of the Rio de Janeiro Open and reaching the semifinals of the only ATP 500 tournament in South America, which he won last year. The 19-year-old tennis player from Murcia, Brazil’s first favorite and current US Open champion, had less difficulty than he faced against Italian Fabio Fognini (86 ATP) in the round of 16 on Thursday. to come back in a tough duel of almost three hours.
The Spaniard, who won the Argentine Open on Sunday after a four-month hiatus due to injury, needed just one hour and 54 minutes to beat Lajovic, who eliminated fifth favorite and champion Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman (38 ATP) in the first round. Brazil in 2018 and Serbian Laslo Djere (57 ATP) who lifted the title in the eighth round and also in Rio in 2018. This was his third win until recently in the world number one match against Lajovic. The previous one was at the Argentine Open last week. Alcaraz will face the winner of the duel between Brazil’s sixth favorite, Argentinian Sebastián Báez (35 ATP) and Chile’s Nicolás Jarry, in the semi-finals on Saturday. (139 ATP)Already a semi-finalist in the 2018 edition in Rio de Janeiro and champion in doubles in 2019 along with Argentina’s Máximo González.
In the other semi-final in Rio, they will face Brazil’s second favourite, Cameron Norrie (13 ATP), who lost to Alcaraz at the Argentine Open on Sunday, and Spaniard Bernabé Zapata (63 ATP), who was also a semi-finalist in Buenos Aires. Who in week eliminated Argentina’s Franciso Cerundolo (33 ATP) and Spain’s Albert Ramos (47 ATP), the fourth and seventh key presidents, respectively.
Lajovic started better in the first round and managed to take a 4-2 lead after breaking the Spaniard’s serve, but Murcian knew how to react; He prevented the Serb from leveling his fourth serve to 4-4 and spoiling the opponent’s last serve. win the set 6-4. The second set started more evenly and the tie continued until the fifth game, when the Serbian player managed to grab Alcaraz’s serve and confirmed his serve, taking a 4-2 lead. However, Murcian countered with the same coin and drew 5-5. The Spaniard had the opportunity to confirm his serve and take the lead, but after a long game in which both took turns leading Lajovic broke Murcia’s serve and took a 6-5 lead. Alcaraz then decided to go to the net three times to avoid defeat in the set and drew 6-6 from the timeout. In the tiebreaks, world number two was much more effective and definitely won 7-0. take the handle for 7-6.
The ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro, which took place on the clay courts of the Brazilian Jockey Club until Sunday, with prizes of $2.2 million, is part of the South American dirt tour that started with the Cordoba Open and Argentina. It is open and ends next week in Santiago (Chile) with ATP 250.