Carreno Busta Breaks A Sweat, Moves Into Los Cabos SFs
Carreno Busta Breaks A Sweat, Moves Into Los Cabos SFs
Spanish wild card downs Giraldo in marathon match
Pablo Carreno Busta rallied from a set and a break down to beat Santiago Giraldo 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3 at the Abierto Mexicano Mifel on Thursday. The Spanish wild card broke serve five times and edged Giraldo in a match which lasted just over three hours in the hot and humid conditions of Los Cabos.
“It was quite a difficult match,” Carreno Busta said. “Santiago was a tough opponent. Things were not looking good after I lost the first set, but I stayed calm and got the win in the end.”
The 25 year old came into the week with just one hard-court win at the ATP World Tour level on the season (d. Donskoy in Indian Wells), but is now a match away from reaching his first tour-level hard-court final. Carreno Busta was runner-up at clay-court ATP World Tour 250 events in Estoril and Sao Paulo earlier this year.
In the semi-finals, Carreno Busta will face top seed Feliciano Lopez or Julien Benneteau.
Indian Duo Into Doubles Semi-Finals
Purav Raja and Divij Sharan saw their opponents Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak take the first set of their quarter-final clash 6-1, but recovered to win 1-6, 6-3, 10-7 to move into the semi-finals. The Indian duo claimed 11 of 16 second-serve return points and broke serve three times (3/4) to advance in 74 minutes.
Also victorious were Jonathan Erlich and Ken Skupski, who took out No. 3 seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Mate Pavic 6-4, 1-6, 10-5. Erlich/Skupski saved seven break points (7/11) in the 72-minute encounter.