Roberto Bautista, number 12 in the world, had no contemplations when it came to getting rid of Sergio Gutierrez Ferrol (722º) in the first semifinal of the 95th edition of the Copa de Rey that is held from this Tuesday at the Real Club Recreativo de Tenis de Huelva. The player from Castellón, who would not have attended the event under normal conditions if the ATP circuit were running, He won 6-2 and 6-0 against the 31-year-old from Alicante, champion of the Cup in 2018.
Bautista will face this Wednesday in the final (20:30, Andalucía TV) to the winner of the other tie, Alex de Miñaur, who prevailed in a much more disputed match against Malaga's Alejandro Davidovich (7-6, 5-7 and 10-7). The Australian, who had dominated the duel in the second set with two breaks ahead, saw how the Spanish, with a magnificent effort, came back after saving a match point to force the final super-tiebreaker, where there was also equality until 6-6 . Bautista and De Miñaur met officially twice, both in 2019 (Paris and Zhuhai), and both times the Spanish-born aussie won.
With an audience in the stands (seating was restricted to 600 people in order to maintain social distance) and strict security measures, such as taking of temperature and the obligatory use of masks outside what are the parties, the RCR wanted to celebrate its 130 years of history with this homer with a luxury lineup, made possible by the special conditions caused by the pandemic on the international circuit