Pablo Cuevas and Pablo Carreno Busta had unsuccessful returns to the tour as they both carried injuries. Cuevas suffered a 6-4 6-3 loss to Henri Laaksonen, while the Spaniard retired at 3-0 down in the third set to Andrey Kuznetsov.
Pablo Cuevas suffered a damaging defeat today as he lost to World number 100 Henri Laaksone 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 8 minutes. The Uruguayan had missed Wimbledon and returned to the tour in his second round clash with Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen. It was entertaining match with the returner winning most of the battles and a lack of service holds occurred. There were eight breaks of serve in the contest however it was Laaksonen who broke five times to take the match and potentially the biggest victory of his career.
Laaksonen was obviously pleased with his win as he progressed to the Quarter-Finals of an ATP World Tour event for the first time, ‘I had to stay aggressive as he is one of the best players on clay, I’m really happy to win today. I had to go and try to win it.”
Laaksonen will play David Ferrer in the last eight who defeated Dustin Brown 6-2 6-3. The world number 46 will sense an opportunity to get his season back on track looking at this draw as he defeated a lacklustre Dustin Brown. The Spaniard was ruthless as he converted all four of his break point opportunities to advance to the last eight and become one of the favourites to lift the title.
In the top half of the draw Pablo Carreno Busta suffered on his return to the tour as he retired against Andrey Kuznetsov. The Spaniard, who had retired in his Quarter-Final match with Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros this year, once again suffered as he was 4-6 7-6(5) 3-0 down to Kuznetsov when he took the decision to retire.
Despite the tainted victory the Russian took the positives from the victory, ‘I felt that I played during the whole match, in the first and second sets I had 14 break point chances, but converted only one. In the end I played well in the tie-break, then I saw in the third set he couldn’t move or serve that well.’
Kuznetsov will now play 7th seed Diego Schwartzman on Friday in the last eight as he took out his fellow Argentinian Renzo Olivo. Schwartzman converted 63% of his break point opportunities as he defeated Olivo 6-4 6-1. The World number 38 will play his fifth Quarter-Final of the season on Friday.
