The story of Iñigo Cervantes is one of overcoming obstacles. The Spanish tennis player has overcome two hip operations, elbow surgery and a further intervention on his Achilles tendon and not only has he not hung up his racket but he is now at a career high ranking of 65 (which will go even higher next week) and has reached his first ATP semi finals after overcoming Federico Delbonis 7-6, 2-6, 6-4.
The match was interrupted by the rain, as has many of the week’s action in Brazil, and went on for 2 hours and 27 minutes. Cervantes who won the Challenger Tour Finals at this very city, and broke into the top 100, continues his love affaire with the Brazilian city. “It’s a great satisfaction. I’ve been looking for this for a long time. I’ve gone through some tough times and I hope to slowly but surely reap the rewards for my hard work. Tomorrow I’ve got a great opportunity to reach my first ATP final”, said Cervantes who will meet fellow Spaniard Carreño in the semifinals, after he got the better of yet another Spanish player, Roberto Carballes, by 6-0, 6-3.“Pablo and I know each other very well. He’s a very aggressive player and we met recently in Quito, where he beat me in three sets”, claimed Cervantes of his semi final opponent.
The other semi finals will pit together Dusan Lajovic and Pablo Cuevas. The Serbian player put and end to Portuguese player Gastao Elias’ fairytale run with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 and will face the in-form player in Brazil, Pablo Cuevas, who’s on the back of winning the title in Rio. The Uruguayan knocked out the revelation of this Latin American swing, Thiago Monteiro, in a hard-fought 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory.