TENNIS ATP250 QUITO – At the Ecuador Open the top players, Lopez, Verdasco and Bellucci, reach the semifinals. The fourth semifinalist is Victor Estrella. By Bruno Bergareche Sans
Except for Santi Giraldo, who fell in the second round against Montañes, Lopez, Verdasco and Bellucci were probably the three top players participating in Quito this week. And, following the script, all three players have booked their places in the semifinals. Feliciano Lopez needed to go the distance to dispatch Dusan Lajovic (4/6, 7/5, 6/1) and now faces his best friend on tour, Fernando Verdasco.
Verdasco swept past Paolo Lorenzi 6/1 6/2, with his hard hitting really adapting nicely to the high altitude conditions in Ecuador, and despite having a lower ranking and Lopez playing the tennis of his life, the favourite going into this one has to be the man from Madrid. Verdasco narrowly edges their head-to-head encounters 4-3, winning their only meeting on clay in straight sets at Kitzbuhel back in 2004. His game is much better suited to the red stuff and if his mind is in a good place he’s a top ten player. This match against Lopez will be a good test to see how that mind of Verdasco’s is ticking.
Down the other half of the draw, Bellucci sealed his place in the semifinals after a professional display against a seasoned clay-courter in the shape of Montañes. The Brazilian is also aiming to find that tennis that took him all the way to world number 21 in 2010 and has kicked off his Latin American swing in the best way possible but now faces the maverick of the week in Quito: Victor Estrella. Hailing from the famous holiday destination of Dominican Republic, Estrella has placed the small Caribbean nation on the tennis map by breaking through onto the ATP tour at the age of 34. This week in Ecuador, Estrella has continued to overcome obstacles and take huge strides. His latest victim was Martin Klizan, who is by no means a pushover but only managed to conjure up four games before packing his bags. Funnily, this win avoided an all left-handed semifinal in Quito, which is surely something that hasn’t happened too many times in the ATP Tour. Victor Estrella will try to continue crashing the party tomorrow when he faces Bellucci for a place in his first ever ATP final.
