Argentine tennis player Federico Coria won this Wednesday in the round of 16 of the Rio de Janeiro Open by 7-6 (2), 4-6 and 6-4 against the Spanish Fernando Verdasco and advanced to the quarterfinals of the only ATP 500 tournament in South America, an instance that he also reached last week in Argentina. Coria, number 63 in the ATP ranking, needed three hours and a minute of a very close and close match to eliminate Verdasco from the Brazilian tournament, currently 172 in the ranking but who became the seventh best in the world in 2009.
This was the first time that the 29-year-old Argentine, was measured in an ATP tournament against the Spanish, 38 and one of the oldest tennis players still active in the world. Both landed in Rio de Janeiro after being eliminated last week in the quarterfinals of the Argentina Open. The younger brother of Guillermo Coria will meet in the quarterfinals in Rio the winner of the duel between the Spanish Pablo Carreño (18 ATP), fourth favorite in Brazil, and the Italian Fabio Fognini (38 ATP).
Coria advanced to the round of 16 after having eliminated Chilean Cristian Garín (19 ATP) on Tuesday, who was the fifth favorite in the Brazilian tournament and the last champion of the Rio Open (2020). Verdasco, who played the Brazilian tournament with a protected ranking due to injuries that prevented him from playing last yearwas a finalist in Rio de Janeiro in 2018 and hoped to continue advancing in the Brazilian tournament to try to score points in the standings and earn the right to play in the major tournaments.
The man from Madrid only got the 45 points he received for the victory he won on Tuesday by 2-0, with partial 7-6 (7-4) and 6-3, over the Serbian Dusan Lajovic (39 ATP). In a fairly close and even first round, which lasted for an hour and 8 minutes, both rivals confirmed all their services and had to define the result in a tie-break, in which Coria was much more effective and opened a 4-0 lead, ending up winning the set 7-6 with a 7 -2 in the tiebreaker.
In the second, the Argentine managed to break the Spaniard’s second serve and it seemed that he would get an easy victory, but the Madrid native responded immediately to level the score (2-2). The set remained even until the man from Madrid, when he was winning 5-4, managed to break his rival’s last serve, win the set 6-4 and provisionally tie the match.
In the decisive set, equality was maintained until Coria took advantage of two mistakes by the Spaniard and broke his last serve to open a 5-4 lead, with which he only had to confirm his, despite the fact that he was losing the ‘game’ by 40-0, to win the sleeve 6-4 and the match 2-1. The ninth edition of the Rio de Janeiro tournament, suspended in 2021 due to the covid pandemic, It will be played until next Sunday on the clay courts of the Brazilian Jockey Club of Rio de Janeiro.