The main opponent all players had to defeat today at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club was the extreme heat, which reached temperatrues of up to 39ºC. Rafa Nadal, who is one of the sweatiest players on tour, was pouring beads but still put in an accomplished performance to beat tough nut Paolo Lorenzi 7-6, 6-2.
The Spaniard’s groundstrokes were lacking depth but, as he’s done on many occasions, he made up for has lack of feel with a huge amount of competitiveness to get a win where the result was more promising than the performance.
“The conditions are extreme and I’m struggling to adapt a bit. I’m happy to be in the semifinals as it’s an important week for me. I also want to thank the fans who showed up despite the heat. It’s tough for the players but also for them sitting still”, said Nadal.
Nadal will have to up his game in the semifinals where he faces the dangerous Dominic Thiem, who cruised past Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-2. “He’s playing very well. Last year he won various tournaments on this surface. He’s a young player with a lot of potential and I hope I’m ready for it”, rounded off the Majorcan.
Another Spaniard will join him in the penultimate round and it’s none other than Nicolas Almagro, who rediscovered his brilliant best form to take out Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 7-5. The win against Delbonis in the previous round seems to have been a turning point for the former top ten player who was quite simply too powerful for the Frenchman. This victory will do nothing more than further boost Almagro’s confidence as it was the first time he overcame Tsonga in seven meetings.
Almagro will continue to test his form in the semi finals, where he faces the winner of David Ferrer v Pablo Cuevas.
