Pablo Cuevas stuns Thomaz Bellucci to advance into the semis at Estoril Open
Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas upset sixth seeded Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in straight sets on Friday. He registered a 6-4, 6-2 win over the 23-year-old Brazilian to advance into the semi-finals of the 2011 Estoril Open, a clay court
tournament held in Oeiras, Portugal.
A former top fifty player, Cuevas is in good shape this season so far and recently made a semi-final berth at Houston. However, he exited from the opening round at Barcelona but displayed magnificent skills in this ATP World Tour
250 series where hasn’t lost a single set yet. He triumphed over Spaniard Pere Riba and third seeded French Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the pre-quarter rounds.
Ranked 61st in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Cuevas downed the Brazilian, ranked 30 places above him, on his first meeting. By winning this eighty minutes match, the Uruguayan took a lead in his
head-to-head series against the Brazilian by 1-0.
25-year-old displayed exceptional skills and abilities in the opening set and held his opening serve smoothly. He then held his entire serves and broke to 30 in the fifth game to eventually seal the set with a 6-4 win. Cuevas produced
a lower first serve share of 52 percent as compared to Bellucci’s 66 percent but he earned an amazing 87 percent win on it.
He kept his momentum flowing into the second set and broke the Brazilian’s serve in the very first game. Cuevas then kept his serves convincingly and converted another breakpoint to his advantage in the seventh games to clinch
the set with an assuring 6-2 score line. He raised his level of game in the final set and produced a higher first serve share of 61 percent as compared to Bellucci’s 55 percent. The Uruguayan also earned an impressive 79 percent win on it and smashed four
aces to help him win easily.
Cuevas will next face eighth seed Juan Martin Del Potro. The Argentinean upset the top seeded Swede Robin Soderling in one hour and fifty-eight minutes earlier that day.
22-year-old converted three out of five breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to register a 6-4, 7-5 victory.
The other two quarter-finals taking place at Court 1 were suspended due to bad light.
Seventh seeded South African Kevin Anderson won the first set in seventy-three minutes against second seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
The second match was between Fourth seeded French Gilles Simon and fifth seeded Canadian Milos Raonic. Simon was leading 6-5 when the match was called off.
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