RIO DE JANEIRO/STARNBERG, December 18, 2021
Kaichi Uchida of Japan upset top seed and home favourite Thiago Seyboth Wild to reach the semi-finals of the Rio De Janeiro Tennis Classic. The No. 8 seed of the $52,080 ATP Challenger hard-court tournament won 6-4, 6-1 on Friday afternoon.
Uchida sent down five aces, saved both break points he faced and capitalized on four of his own seven break-point chances to advance after one hour and 13 minutes.
The World No. 319 will next take on Brazilian wild card entry Gabriel Decamps, who is still enjoying the best week of his career with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory in two hours and 25 minutes over his compatriot Daniel Dutra da Silva. Decamps won 54 per cent of the total points played to reach the stage of the final four at Challenger level for the first time.
“It was a tough match. Daniel is a huge competitor, a good role model. He knew I would have to fight until the end to leave the court as the winner,” said 654th-ranked Decamps.
In the bottom half of the draw, Nicolas Alvarez Varona of Spain defeated US-American lucky loser Ryan Smith 6-4, 6-4. The 20-year-old Burgos native converted all of his three break-point opportunities to prevail after 90 minutes. Alvarez Varona will next play either Mateus Alves of Brazil or No. 2 seed Nicolas Kicker from Argentina. Their match was postponed to Saturday due to rain.
Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an
