Roberto Bautista could not overcome the quarterfinals of the Hamburg tournament (Germany) when defeated before the Russian Andrey Rublev 6-2 and 7-5 in an hour and a half of the game.
A bad staging of Bautista, with loss of service in the first game, determined the development of the first set, in which the Castellón tennis player lost his turn to serve up to three times until the final 6-2.
In the second set, things were more balanced although Bautista continued to be very irregular with his serve, losing again in three of his at-bats to Rublev. who scored the last three games of the match. The Russian's rival in the semifinals will be the Norwegian Casper Ruud, who got rid of three hard sets by Ugo Humbert, one of the revelations of the tournament.
It seemed that the Frenchman was heading for the victory after equalizing the duel in the second set, but he did not capture that positive inertia in the final set. Ruud, pupil of the Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor, he showed off his solidity from the bottom, a virtue that makes him a tough nut to crack on clay, and He closed the game with a lot of superiority: 7-5, 3-6 and 6-1.
Tsitsipas advances with firm step
Who is confirming his good feelings each day of the tournament that passes is Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek, second seed of the tournament and top seed after the elimination of Daniil Medvedev, beat Serbian Dusan Lajovic to seal his place in the semi-finals in 1 hour and 39 minutes of play: 7-6 and 6-2.
The first set was decided by details. After both had several options to break their opponent's serve, they reached the fateful tiebreaker. The Greek was better in the decisive moments and winning that even set left his rival touched on the mental plane. Lajovic, more out of the game than in, got carried away in a second set that barely exceeded half an hour of play. In the semifinal he will face the Chilean Christian Garín, who came back from an adverse set against Alexander Bublik: 3-6, 6-4 and 6-4.