Rio de Janeiro, February 24. Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, world number two, beat Italian Fabio Fognini (86 ATP) 6-7 (5), 6-2 and 6-4 on Thursday and qualified for the quarter-finals of the Rio de Janeiro Open, the only ATP 500 tournament in South America and of which he was champion last year, after a tough duel between Europeans.
The 19-year-old tennis player from Murcia, Brazil’s first favorite, struggled against the Italian in the first set, who ended up losing due to errors in the basic sets, but from the second set he showed his best tennis so far and completely dominated.
The world No. suffered as they lost 4-1 in the second set. .. and that the rest of the match bored him, which lasted two hours and 47 minutes.
It was the second match between the two tennis players. In the first, also last year in Rio de Janeiro, Alcaraz won 6-2, 7-5 in the semi-finals of the Brazilian tournament.
The current US Open champion thus confirmed his hegemony over Fognini, 35, who was a finalist at the Rio Open in 2015 after beating Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.
In the quarter-finals, the Spaniard will face Friday the winner of the duel between the Serbs Laslo Djere (57 ATP), who was champion in Rio de Janeiro in 2018, and Dusan Lajovic (80 ATP), who eliminated from the first around Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, fifth seed and who was champion in Brazil in 2018.
Alcaraz broke the Italian’s first serve in the opening set and quickly opened a 3-1 lead, but Fognini responded in kind and, with one on the line, cut the lead to 3-2 .
The Murcian, at the point of strength, prevented the Italian from taking advantage of his serve to equalize and, after breaking his serve and confirming his own, opened a partial 5-2 lead.
But the San Remo man drew strength to break three straight serves from the Spaniard, come back and take a 6-5 partial advantage.
While Fognini already seemed to be celebrating his victory in the first set, the world number two showed vitality and with a climb into the net he managed to break his rival’s serve, prevent him from winning and equalize 6-6.
In the tiebreaker, despite having a 4-2 advantage, the Murcian failed in the baseline games and allowed the Italian to win 7-5 and win the first set 7-6.
Alcaraz used the break to focus and when he returned to the court for the second round he quickly broke Fognini’s first two serves and confirmed his own to open a 4-0 lead.
The Italian then suffered a slight twist in his ankle as he tried to respond to a ball which the Spaniard dropped near the net and, despite not seeing a doctor, a drop in his performance from that time was evident.
Alcaraz only had to confirm their serves to win the second set 6-2 and tie the match.
In the third set, still fueled by his good momentum and with games in which he showed his strength and vitality, the Spaniard broke Fognini’s first two serves and opened a partial 3-1 lead, which he retained until the end, to win the manga. by 6-4.
Other tennis players who have already secured a place in the quarter-finals in Rio are Briton Cameron Norrie (13 ATP), second favorite in Brazil; Spaniards Albert Ramos (47 ATP) and Bernabé Zapata (63 ATP), Argentinian Sebastián Báez (35 ATP), Chilean Nicolás Jarry (139 ATP) and Bolivian Hugo Dellien (111 ATP).