Eighth seed Casper Ruud continued his blistering form this week at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires, charging into the semi-finals on Friday with a convincing 7-5, 6-1 win over third-seeded Serbian Dusan Lajovic.
Both players remained even throughout much of the first set, but the 21-year-old Norwegian found a new gear and won eight of the last nine games. Ruud has dropped just 12 games across his first three rounds to move into his fifth ATP Tour semi-final, all of which have come on clay.
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Awaiting him in the last four is Juan Ignacio Londero, who upset second seed Guido Pella 6-4, 7-6(4) in an all-Argentine battle. Londero saved two set points on his serve at 4-5 in the second set with clean forehand winners, then grabbed the last three points of the tie-break to advance in one hour and 55 minutes. He moves to 2-0 against Pella in their ATP Head2Head series, having defeated him in last year’s championship match in Cordoba.
Top seed and home favourite Diego Schwartzman headlines the night session against Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, followed by Brazilian Thiago Monteiro taking on Portuguese lucky loser Pedro Sousa.
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