Fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo came back from one set down to beat Luciano Darderi 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 6-2 reaching the quarter final at the Rio Open ATP 500 tournament.
Cerundolo beat Darderi for the second consecutive tournament after scoring a 6-4 6-4 win over his Italian rival in the Round of 32 in Buenos Aires one week ago.
Cerundolo hit 45 winners to 43 unforced errors and converted 19 of his 27 unforced errors.
Cerundolo broke Darderi at love in the first game and held his next service games to open up a 4-1 lead. Darderi broke back in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Both players held on their service games en route to the tie-break. Darderi earned three mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-1.
Cerundolo earned the break at love in the second game after a double fault from Darderi. Cerundolo saved a break point to hold serve at deuce for 3-0. Darderi saved four set points in the eighth game to hold serve at deuce for 3-5. Cerundolo served out the second set 6-3 with a hold at love.
Cerundolo broke serve in the fifth game with a hold at 30 to take a 3-2 lead. The South American player earned a second break in the seventh game and served out the win on his second match point with an ace in the eighth game.
Cerundolo has improved his record to 14-3 on clay since last July.
“I’m super happy. I was a little pissed when I lost the first set because I didn’t have 100 per cent energy. Last week I played a lot. This week is also super humid here. But after that, I started playing better. I started moving better, I don’t know how. I played really well in the second and third set and I’m super happy to get through”, Cerundolo said in his on-court interview.
Cerundolo will face a quarter final match against Alexandre Muller, who beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-5 7-6 (7-5). Muller beat last week’s Buenos Aires champion Joao Fonseca earlier this week. Muller broke serve in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Etcheverry broke straight back to draw level to 5-5 and sealed the first set with another break on his second set point. Etcheverry converted his third break point and held his serve at 30 to take a 2-0 lead. Muller broke back in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Etcheverry started the tie-break with an early mini-break to take a 1-0 lead, but Muller pulled back on serve. Muller earned his second mini-break to take a 4-2 lead. Etcheverry broke back to draw level to 4-4. Muller won three of his next four points including his third mini-break to seal the tie-break 7-5.
