Almagro survives scare

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 13:07

The sixth-seeded Spaniard looked doomed to elimination when he trailed 0-4 in the third set before he bravely fought back to win the next five games before closing out the match in a tie-break.

It was Almagro’s 12th consecutive win at the clay-court event and took two hours and 33 minutes.

“It was an incredible match,” he said. “I thought we both played well and towards the end there was a lot of adrenaline. I am very happy to win today and reach the quarter-finals. I don’t know what it is with Acapulco, but I seem to play my best tennis here.”

Almagro will next meet countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero who beat Igor Andreev 6-4 6-3.

It was a good day for the Spaniards with top seed Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer, the number three seed, also winning through to the last eight.

Verdasco was too good for Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 6-4 6-3 while Ferrer had little trouble against Brazil’s Thomasz Bellucci 6-4 6-1.

Second seed Fernando Gonzalez had a tougher afternoon as the Chilean needed three sets to beat Victor Hanescu 7-6 (7/2) 3-6 6-1.

Argentina’s Juan Monaco, the seventh seed, beat Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4 7-6 (7/4) to continue his hold over his compatriot. Monaco has now beaten Chela three times during the current Latin American clay-court season.

Albert Montanes was the only seed to fall after Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas secured an upset result 7-5 6-3 over the eighth seed. Qualifier Eduardo Schwank continued his impressive run with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-3 victory over Simon Greul.

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