Could this be the week Sebastian Baez breaks through for his first ATP Tour title?
The Argentine certainly showed his determination on home soil Thursday evening when he rallied past third seed Cristian Garin 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the Cordoba Open.
“I think in the first set I had a lot of chances and I was maybe a little bit more nervous than Garin,” Baez said. “After that I tried to be [calm], tried to do better. I thought I could do it. For that reason, the result was for me today.”
Baez showed the world his competitive spirit at last year’s Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, where he made the semi-finals. The Argentine put that on full display again on Cancha Central, where he broke the Chilean’s serve eight times to advance.
“I tried to be concentrated,” Baez said. “[I tried] to be focussed on every point.”
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Fourth seed Lorenzo Sonego also advanced to the last eight with a 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-2 victory against Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena. The Italian won 83 per cent of his first-serve points.
“I needed to change something in my play, because I was confident in the second set and I tried to be more aggressive than the first set,” Song said. “All good. I won the match and I’m happy for that.”
Next up for the World No. 23 will be another Spaniard, Albert Ramos-Vinolas. The sixth seed moved past Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas when the qualifier retired during the second set due to an ankle injury. Ramos-Vinolas led 6-4, 2-3.
“I played him in Rio and lost to him,” Sonego said of Ramos-Vinolas. “He’s a great player with big experience and it will be a really tough match for sure. We will see tomorrow.”