Buenos Aires, Washington: Top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal reached the Argentina Open semi-finals Friday, braving sweltering temperatures of 33 degrees to clinch a 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 win over Italian journeyman Paolo Lorenzi.
Nadal, the world number five, is back on his favourite clay court surface and is playing his first event since his shock opening round loss to compatriot Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open last month.
He had seen off close friend Juan Monaco of Argentina in Thursday’s first round but faced a slightly tougher test Friday when 34-year-old Lorenzi, the world 52, clawed his way back from a 4-1 first set deficit.
But 29-year-old Nadal clinched victory on his first match point after one hour and 51 minutes on court.
It was the Spaniard’s 346th win on clay as he remains on track to claim a 48th career title on the surface which has brought him his greatest success.
Meanwhile, top seed Kei Nishikori moved closer to a fourth straight ATP Memphis title, saving all five break points he faced in a 6-2, 6-4 quarter-final victory over Mikhail Kukushkin.
Japan’s world number seven, who has now won all five of his meetings with Kazakhstan’s Kukushkin, reached his first ATP semi-final since Tokyo in October. He’ll face fourth-seeded American Sam Querrey in a rematch of their semi-final clash here last year.
Querrey ended the dream run of Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 6-4.
A tennis umpire who was suspended for a year as part of a betting investigation continued to work at tournaments, including last year’s US Open, the US Tennis Association (USTA) confirmed Friday.
Croatia’s Denis Pitner, banned for a year in August after passing on information about a player’s fitness to a coach and accessing a betting account that was used to place bets on matches, was a line judge at the US Open last September.
He also officiated at last month’s ATP Qatar Open at Doha, Pitner even posting a photograph of himself in the Qatari capital on his Facebook page.
A USTA statement said the national governing body was “shocked” to learn Pitner worked the tournament after being banned and has launched an investigation into how he managed to avoid having his credential revoked.
“After learning within the last 24 hours that an official on the ‘Do Not Credential’ list may have worked at the 2015 US Open as a linesman, the USTA immediately investigated the claim,” the statement said. “The USTA was shocked to find that this was in fact the case.”
Results
Quarter-finals
Kei Nishikori (JPN x1) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) 6-2, 6-4
Sam Querrey (USA x4) bt Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN) 6-3, 6-4
Ricardas Berankis (LTU) bt Donald Young (USA x3) 7-6 (7/3), 6-1
Taylor Fritz (USA) bt Benjamin Becker (GER) 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7/5)
