MADRID, 18 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz has overcome the Serbian Dusan Lajovic (6-4, 6-2) this morning and has advanced to the semifinals of the Buenos Aires tournament, of the ATP 250 category and played on clay, where he will face his compatriot Bernabé Zapata, who has beaten Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo (6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3).
In his first ATP tournament since November, the Murcian, number two in the world, continues with a firm step and this time he needed just one hour and 33 minutes to get rid of the Balkan tennis player. “It has been my second match of the year and I am very happy with my work,” he commented after the match.
The man from El Palmar went ahead 3-0 in the erratic opening set, in which both tennis players exchanged a couple of breaks each in the next seven games, which did not prevent the Spaniard from taking the sleeve.
Already in the second, he kept his serve intact and signed two ‘breaks’, one in the first game and another in the last, to close the clash and secure his first circuit semifinals since October in Basel and the first on clay since July in Umag.
On Saturday he will seek his ninth ATP final, seventh on clay, against Bernabé Zapata, who qualified for his first tour semifinals by beating local Francisco Cerúndolo (6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3). The Valencian, number 74 in the world, missed an opportunity to close the game, serving at 6-5 in the second set, but he recovered and won the pass by winning the third set.
Zapata relied on a break in the first set to take the lead in contention, before Cerúndolo equalized her in the tie-break of the second. After letting go of up to four break times in the last set, the Spaniard finally managed to break in the sixth game, vital to close the match after more than two and a half hours of play. He will now face Alcaraz for the second time, who beat him in the preliminary phase of Roland Garros 2021.
