Albert Ramos breathed a sigh of relief when Sumit Nagal sent his last blow to the net and delivered an important and significant victory for the Spaniard (4-6, 6-2 and 7-5). And it is that until this Friday he had never been able to pass the quarterfinals of the Argentina Open. Wawrinka, Ferrer, Carreño and Schwartzman dismounted him in that round between 2013 and 2019. This time, the Catalan, who is sweet on his Argentine journey, managed to reach the semifinals and will face the local Francisco Cerúndolo on Saturday, brother of the tennis player, Juan Manuel, who beat Ramos last Sunday in the Cordoba final. The oldest of the saga defeated another Spaniard, Pablo Andújar, who fell apart after completely dominating the match in the first set and had them stiff afterwards with the chair umpire before falling 1-6, 6-3 and 6-2. “What a bad referee,” he said about the Spanish umpire Nacho Forcadell, who was listening to him and was for few jokes after enduring on Friday Benoit Paire's impertinences, spit included.
The land has always been Albert's favorite terrain, one of his greatest successes, and he is taking advantage of it these days. Although at the cost of making titanic efforts to advance. The one who won against the Indian Nagal, a tough opponent who made it very difficult for him and who had never reached the quarterfinals in an ATP tournament, was his seventh match decided in three sets of the last eight he has played. In the last two sets he was much better, and he did not close the victory before because he was confused in the ninth game after having placed with a comfortable 5-2.
In those commitments, in addition, he has had to come back four times after losing the first set. He did it a few days ago against the German Koepfer and he repeated his feat in a match played at a very high level and in which he won some magnificent points. Albert looks good physically and his tennis is reminiscent of the one he practiced often on clay in 2017, when he played the Sao Paulo and Monte Carlo finals.
Table and results.