VILLENA, April 4, 2019
Carlos Taberner has reached his second ATP Challenger quarterfinal of the season. The 21-year-old from Valencia rallied past No. 4 seeded Spanish compatriot Guillermo Garcia-López, winning 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday afternoon at the €46,600 Ferrero Challenger Open in Villena.
Taberner, who also advanced to the stage of the final eight at the Koblenz Open at the beginning of the year, won 70 per cent of his first service points to prevail in two hours and 31 minutes. The wild card entry will next take on No. 11 seed Salvatore Caruso of Italy, who defeated Elias Ymer from Sweden 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
#Villena | Carlos Taberner desactiva a Garcia Lopez (67 61 64) y se asegura regresar al top300 del ranking. Primer español en pisar los QF del Challenger @EqueliteFerrero pic.twitter.com/JRSys6ujwK
— Fernando Murciego (@fermurciego) 4. April 2019
Later in the day, top seed Pablo Andújar remained untroubled in his third-round match against Arthur de Greef from Belgium. The defending champion from Spain capitalized on five of his seven break point chances to secure a 6-3, 6-3 victory in one hour and 35 minutes. Andújar will next face Joao Domingues of Portugal, who benefited from the retirement of Lukas Rosol from the Czech Republic, leading 7-6(2), 3-0.
