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Singles – Quarterfinal: (1) N Almagro (WC) def. (5) C Berlocq 6-3 6-2
Nicolas Almagro really does love this time of the year — any additional wins will count for him, and his next opponent, based on current form, will be easier than this one. Carlos Berlocq appears set to enter the Top Forty, but just barely.
Singles – Quarterfinal: (8) A Ramos def. (3) F Verdasco 7-6(7-5) 6-3
The Great Fernando Verdasco Funk continues. It looks as if he’ll return to the Top 25, but this two years ago he would have won this….
Singles – Quarterfinal: (4) T Bellucci def. L Mayer 3-6 6-2 7-5
Maybe it was the crowd support. Thomaz Bellucci somehow kept working his way out of trouble. He broke as Leonardo Mayer served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, and broke again as Mayer served for a tiebreak. This will probably take him above #35. The flip side is, he spent two and a half hours out there, and it was the late match. And both his matches so far have been ugly. Can he survive again?
Singles – Quarterfinal: F Volandri def. D Nalbandian 3-6 6-3 7-5
The schedule may have cost David Nalbandian here; he played a long match the night before, then had to play rather earlier in the day on Friday. He seemed to get tired as the match went along, suffering no breaks in the first set, one in the second, a second early in the third. He got the latter break back, but about two and a quarter hours into the match, in the eleventh game of the final set, he really faded, was broken again, and that was that.
Doubles – Quarterfinal: (2) Bracciali/Starace def. Mello/Souza 6-4 6-4
Doubles – Quarterfinal: (3) Cabal/Farah def. Chardy/Simon 7-6(7-4) 5-7 10-8 (Match TB)
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