The Spaniard stands in the penultimate round after defeating Albert Ramos (6-4, 2-6 and 6-4)
The new victory confirms the rising career of Carlos Navarro’s pupil
Bernabe Zapata was imposed this Friday by 6-4, 2-6 and 6-4 to Albert Ramos in the duel of Spaniards in the quarterfinals of the Rio de Janeiro Open and advanced to the semifinals in the only ATP 500 tournament in South America, an instance in which the British will be measured cameron norry.
The 26-year-old Valencian knew how to take advantage of his best physical shape and his youth against the 35-year-old Catalan veteran in an intense two-hour and 31-minute match under the strong heat of the southern summer in this Brazilian city.
shoenumber 63 in the world, eliminated in the quarterfinals bouquets (47), seventh favorite in Brazil and who reached the semifinals in Rio in 2017, after having left the Argentine out in the round of 16 on Thursday Francisco Cerundolo (33 ATP), fourth seed.
The Valencian will meet in the semifinals on Saturday at norry (13 ATP), second favorite and finalist last Sunday in the Argentina Open, who eliminated the Bolivian 4-6, 6-1 and 6-4 this Friday Hugo Dellien (111).
The new victory confirms the ascending career of Carlos Navarro’s pupil, who this week reached his best position in the ATP ranking (63) after having been a semifinalist at the Argentina Open, an instance in which he was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz, also a Spaniard. , number two in the world.
shoewho last year reached the round of 16 at Roland Garros and the quarterfinals at the ATP 250 in Umag, has already advanced this year to the semifinals at the ATP 250 in Argentina last week and at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro this week.
The Spanish duel was very even until the eighth game when shoe forced bouquets to make an effort to defend their service and both took turns in the lead for several minutes. The Catalan finally managed to open the two points difference and maintain the 4-4.
It was the bell of what would happen two games later, when the Valencian showed greater physical resistance and broke the Catalan’s serves, to prevail 6-4 in a long and balanced set of one hour and 1 minute.
The second set also began evenly until the fifth game, when it was Ramos who broke the service to shoe and confirmed his to open a 4-2 lead. He immediately prevented the Valencian from confirming a new serve, thereby increasing his lead to 5-2, to end up winning the second set 6-2 and leveling the match.
The man from Valencia started the third set better and, after breaking a service, managed to open a 3-0 lead. But Ramos responded in the same way and managed to equalize the set at 4-4. The set seemed to go to the tiebreaker, but shoe He managed to break the Catalan’s last serve to win 6-4.