Tag Archives: Albert Montañés

Delbonis Defeats Albert Montanes to Reach the Brazil Open Semifinals

Posted on by
Reply

There’s no crying for Argentina’s Federico Delbonis, only cheering…

The 23-year-old professional tennis player soundly defeated Spain’s Albert Montanes in just over an hour to advance to the Brazil Open semifinals.

Federico Delbonis

Delbonis, currently ranked No. 61 in the world, beat Montanes in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

He’s now one win away from reaching the second ATP tournament final of his career as he continues his quest to win his first career title.

Delbonis will next face either home-crowd favorite Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil or Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t such a positive experience for his fellow countrymen…

Top-seeded Tommy Haas came back to defeat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals.

Haas broke Zeballos’ serve twice in a row in the decisive set to close the match and take a step closer to his second final of the year.

Haas will next play Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, who reached his first ATP semifinal with an upset 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 6-4 win over fourth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina.

“Lorenzi has been around for a long time so this is a goal I’m sure he has been waiting to achieve for a lifetime,” Haas said. “He has nothing to lose and is going to try to go one more and get to his first ATP tour final. He is a dangerous player. I’m going to have to try to play some of my best tennis.”

The 114th-ranked Lorenzi broke Monaco’s serve to go up 4-3 in the final set and held on to close the match in 2 hours, 34 minutes at the Ibirapuera Arena.

The 32-year-old Italian squandered a match point before losing the second set, but was in control in the third to pick up the win in the ATP 250 tournament in South America’s biggest city.

Lorenzi served 12 aces en route to his first pro semifinal after five career quarterfinal losses.

“I’m very happy to finally break through to the semifinals,” Lorenzi said. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities before but was never able to come up with the victory at this stage. For sure this is one of my greatest weeks on the tour.”

The 43rd-ranked Monaco was trying to win his 200th clay-court match. He is the fifth-highest winner on the surface, behind Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Almagro.

Monaco had a set point in the first set but couldn’t capitalize on it.

“It was a very close match, he had his chances in the first set and I had mine in the second, it was very difficult,” Lorenzi said.

Nadal, the defending champion, is not playing at the clay-court tournament this year. He chose to play at the first edition of the Rio Open, which he won last week.

Bellucci Defeats Santiago Giraldo to Advance in the Brazil Open

Posted on by
Reply

He may be playing on a wild card at the Brazil Open… But Thomaz Bellucci is proving he’s worth the spot.

The 26-year-old Brazilian tennis player pulled off an upset win over Santiago Giraldo, defeating the Colombian – the tournament’s eight seed – 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Brazil Open.

Thomaz Bellucci

The home-crowd favorite broke Giraldo’s serve to go up 4-2 in the final set, then held on to close out the match in just over two hours at the Ibirapuera arena. The break came right after Giraldo called for treatment on his lower back in between games.

Belluci, ranked No. 108 in the world, had six aces, including three in the decisive set.

“I couldn’t hold on to a 3-0 lead in the first set but I started playing better after that,” Bellucci said. “It makes a big difference to be playing at home with the support of the fans. They got behind me and I got to play more aggressively toward the end. It made a huge difference.”

Bellucci beat Giraldo in three sets last week at the Rio Open. He’ll next face Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer in the second round.

But Belluci isn’t the only Latino playing well in the tournament…

Earlier Tuesday, Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva defeated sixth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in 2 hours, 17 minutes. Albert Montanes of Spain beat Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia 6-2, 6-2, while Federico Delbonis of Argentina defeated Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-1, 6-2.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal is not playing at the clay-court tournament this year. He won the Rio Open last week.

Second-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain will play Delbonis, while third-seeded Marcel Granollers plays Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

Argentina’s Juan Monaco, who had a bye in the first round along with the other top seeds, debuts against countrymen Guido Pella.

Granollers Beats Robin Haase to Reach the bet-at-home Cup Finals

Posted on by
Reply

Marcel Granollers has taken down the champion at the bet-at-home Cup

The 27-year-old Spanish tennis player ended defending champion Robin Haase‘s two-year unbeaten streak at the bet-at-home Cup in a hard-fought semifinal on Friday, setting up a final against second-seeded Juan Monaco.

Marcel Granollers

Granollers, the tournament’s eighth seed, beat Haase 7-6 (0), 3-6, 6-4. The Dutchman was 12-0 at the event going into the match, having won the title in 2011 and 2012. In the other semifinal, Monaco defeated seventh-seeded Albert Montanes of Spain 7-6 (2), 7-5.

Granollers took the first set against Haase with flawless attacking play in the tiebreaker after both players held serve throughout.

Early in the second, Haase managed the first break against Granollers but dropped his own serve the next game. Haase added another break for 4-3 and the Dutchman won five straight games to take the set and lead 2-0 in the third.

Haase missed two break points for 3-0, lost five of the next seven games before serving a double-fault on match point.

Granollers has gone beyond the quarterfinals of an ATP event for the first time this season. The 53rd-ranked Spaniard is looking for his fourth career title and first since beating Monaco in the final at Valencia two years ago.

Granollers is 2-1 against Monaco, although the Argentine won their only previous clay-court match in straight sets in 2008.

Mónaco Reaches Semis at Austria’s bet-at-home Cup

Posted on by
Reply

Juan Mónaco is one step closer to winning his ninth career ATP singles title…

The 29-year-old Argentine tennis star defeated Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals of the bet-at-home Cup in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

Juan Monaco

Mónaco, the tournament’s second-seed, secured the victory on the strength of his impressive baseline game, winning a whopping 80-percent of his second-serve points throughout the one-hour, 54-minute contest.

Gimeno-Traver, by contrast, went for bigger serves than the Argentine and won a higher percentage of first-serve points (69 percent to 62 percent) but struggled when he needed to put his second serve in play, winning only 45 percent of those points.

Next up for Mónaco in Friday’s semifinals will be Spain’s Albert Montañes, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Austrian wildcard Dominic Thiem.

Mónaco, who won this event in 2007, is seeking his ninth career ATP singles title.

This Austrian stop on the ATP Tour dates back to 1894, making it one of the oldest events in men’s tennis.

Montañés Defeated Gael Monfils for His Sixth Career Title

Posted on by
Reply

Albert Montañés is having a Nice weekend…

The 32-year-old Spanish tennis player defeated French wild-card entry Gael Monfils 6-0, 7-6 (3) in the final of the Nice Open on Saturday to clinch the sixth title of his career.

Albert Montañés

The match was interrupted by rain at 4-0 in the first set, but that didn’t seem to bother Montañés, who broke for a 3-1 lead in the second as he looked to cruise to victory in style.

Monfils, a former top-10 player whose 2012 season was hampered by a right knee injury, rallied to tie it at 4-4.

Montañés took a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker and sealed the win when a backhand from Monfils sailed long.

The Nice Open is considered a warm-up tournament for the French Open.