Carreno Busta Sinks Schwartzman, Reaches Bastad SFs

Pablo Carreno Busta produced one of the best performances of his season Friday, dispatching third seed Diego Schwartzman 6-1, 6-0 to reach the semi-finals at the Nordea Open in Bastad.

The Spaniard, who is making his fourth appearance at the ATP 250 clay-court event, dominated from the baseline as he pulled the Argentine from corner to corner with his heavy hitting to ease through after 67 minutes.

“I played my match of the season,” Carreno Busta said in his on-court interview. “I was very focused all the time, every point. I tried to be aggressive and controlled the points. I didn’t make many mistakes and it was perfect. It is really good to play like this on court with the full crowd. I just need to continue like this.”

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The fifth seed now leads Schwartzman 4-1 in their ATP Head2Head series after defeating the 29-year-old on clay in the semi-finals in Barcelona in April. Carreno Busta is aiming to capture his first tour-level title of the season this week, with his last triumph on Tour coming at an ATP 500 event in Hamburg last July.

The 31-year-old will face Francisco Cerundolo in his second semi-final of the season after the Argentine sunk Aslan Karatsev 7-5, 6-1 in one hour and 34 minutes.

Cerundolo shocked top seed Casper Ruud in the second round and has now earned a career-best 15 tour-level wins this season. The 23-year-old reached semi-finals in Rio de Janeiro and in Miami earlier this year.