The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, number two in the world, beat Serbian Dusan Lajovic (80 ATP) 6-4, 7-6 (0) this Friday in the quarterfinals of the Rio de Janeiro Open and advanced to the semifinals of the only ATP 500 tournament in South America, of which he was champion last year.
The 19-year-old tennis player from Murcia, first favorite in Brazil and current US Open champion, had fewer difficulties against the Serb than he faced on Thursday in the round of 16 against Italian Fabio Fognini (86 ATP), against whom he had to come back in a hard duel of almost three hours.
The Spaniard, who was champion of the Argentina Open on Sunday after four months out due to injury, needed only an hour and 54 minutes to beat Lajovic, who in the first round eliminated Argentine Diego Schwartzman (38 ATP), fifth favorite and champion in Brazil in 2018, and in the eighth round also Serbian Laslo Djere (57 ATP), who won the title in Rio in 2018.
This was the third win for the until recently world number one in his matches with Lajovic. The previous one was last week at the Argentina Open.
Alcaraz will face the winner of the duel between the Argentine Sebastián Báez (35 ATP), the sixth seed in Brazil, and the Chilean Nicolás Jarry (139 ATP), who in Rio de Janeiro was already a semifinalist in the edition of 2018 and couples champion in 2019 alongside the Argentine Máximo González.
In the other semifinal in Rio, they will face Cameron Norrie (13 ATP), second favorite in Brazil and who fell on Sunday against Alcaraz in the Argentine Open, and the Spanish Bernabé Zapata (63 ATP), also a semifinalist in Buenos Aires and who is week eliminated the Argentine Franciso Cerundolo (33 ATP) and the Spanish Albert Ramos (47 ATP), respectively fourth and seventh key heads.
Lajovic started better in the first round and, after breaking a serve from the Spaniard, managed to open a 4-2 lead, but the Murcian knew how to react; prevent the Serb from confirming his fourth service to tie 4-4, and break the rival's last serve to win the set 6-4.
The second set began more evenly and the equality was maintained until the fifth game, when the Serbian managed to snatch Alcaraz's serve and confirm his, to open a 4-2 lead. But the Murcian responded with the same coin and tied at 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 up three times to the net to prevent the defeat in the set and returned the break to tie 6-6. In the tiebreak, the world number two was much more effective and, without fail, won 7-0, to win the set 7-6.
The ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro, which takes place until Sunday on the clay courts of the Jockey Club Brasileiro and distributes prizes of 2.2 million dollars, is part of the tour on clay in South America, which began with the Cordoba Open and the Argentina Open, and concludes next week with the ATP 250 in Santiago (Chile).
