TENNIS SAO PAOLO – Luca Vanni continues his surprising run at the Brazil Open. The 30 year old Italian defeated Dusan Lajovic 7/6, 7/6 in the quarter finals and will face Joao Souza. Bruno Bergareche Sans
He hadn’t won a single ATP Tour main draw match in his entire career coming into the Brasil Open, but Italian Luca Vanni now finds himself only one win away from reaching a tour final. After achieving his first win in the round of sixteen against Thiemo De Bakker, Vanni continued with his fairytale week defeating world number 77 Dusan Lajovic 7/6 7/6. The Italian got off to a shaky start against an opponent who had defeated two top class clay courters in the shape of Pablo Andujar and Fernando Verdasco in the previous rounds, but soon Vanni’s hard hitting strokes settled him into the game. Both players were fully aware of the huge opportunity brandished to them with such an open draw and there was a sense of neither player wanting to let the chance slip away. In the end Vanni’s confidence was too much for Lajovic and the Italian will now be knocking on the doors of the top 100 after starting the week at 149.
“I feel good; it’s a dream. I won my second match on the ATP and now I’m here with the top players…I think I will be top 100 if I play like this”, said Vanni after his straight sets win. Next up for the Italian is another unexpected semi finalist: Joao Souza. Making the most of a wild card, ‘Feijão’ (bean in English) has fed off the crowd’s support to blast past Pablo Carreño and Martin Klizan in the opening rounds. The Brazilian booked his place in the semi finals after winning the local derby against Argentine Leo Mayer, in what could be an anticipation of the first round of the Davis Cup. With a final scoreline of 6/4 3/6 6/3, Souza arguably faces the biggest opportunity of his life to reach an ATP final when he takes on Vanni tomorrow with what is expected to be a Davis Cup atmosphere as the fans hope to see a Brazilian winning the title for the first time since Gustavo Kuerten in 2004.
The other semi final pits together the two strongest players left in the draw on paper. Pablo Cuevas rallied past Nicolas Almagro, who continues to look to rediscover his finest tennis, in three sets and will take on Colombian Santi Giraldo, who overcame Fabio Fognini in a fiery affaire. Both players constantly showed their frustrations and seemingly didn’t enjoy their time on court. After losing the first set 7/6, Fognini looked certain to take the match to a third set when he served for the second set at 5/3, but the Italian melted down and lost four consecutive games, handing Giraldo a place in the semi finals.
Luca Vanni v Joao Souza will open the order of play at 13:00 local time, followed by Santiago Giraldo v Pablo Cuevas.
