In a rain-interrupted Wednesday, a pair of South Americans – Nicolas Jarry and No. 6 seed Diego Schwartzman – have surged into the Rio Open presented by Claro quarter-finals. Chilean Jarry started the day with an upset of No. 4 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain, 7-5, 6-3, before Schwartzman breezed through an all-Argentine clash with Federico Delbonis 6-2, 6-3.
Top seed Marin Cilic was locked in a gripping battle with former top tenner Gael Monfils before rain cancelled the night’s play. The Croat had rebounded from dropping the opening set and saved a match point after a rain delay in the second set tie-break before rain returned with the pair locked at 3-6, 6-6 and 7-all in the tie-break.
“I was feeling very good but was a bit hyper, going for too much on the ball,” Jarry said of falling behind 3-5 in the first set. “I tried to not give any points to him and I broke him. I did a couple of good returns and after that he got a bit tighter and gave me the advantage for the rest of the match."
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For Jarry, a win over Ramos-Vinolas marked his first win over a Top 20 opponent and landed him in a maiden ATP World Tour quarter-final.
“I’m happy to pull it over. I was getting very nervous,” the World No. 94 in the ATP Rankings said. “The last game that I broke him he didn’t have too much energy. I also lowered mine and I didn’t keep my focus on the things I had to do. A couple of big errors almost cost me that second set.
“It’s a tough match, Albert is one of the best clay-court players in the present. He’s a great guy and I’m very happy to be in the quarter-finals.”
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The 22-year-old bounced back from 3-5 down in the opening set against the World No. 19. He finished up winning 10 of the last 13 games of the match and will next face either No. 7 seed Pablo Cuevas or Portugal’s Gastao Elias for a place in his first ATP World Tour semi-final.
“I’m just doing the same as I did last year – have fun on the court, train as hard as I can, stay very concentrated," Jarry said.
“Last year I had a great year in Challengers. I didn’t have the ranking to play ATP [events]. Now I have and I’m making the best out of it and I’m very happy for being able to do it.”.readfullarticle
