Top seed Kei Nishikori is rounding into impressive form at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires, sprinting into the last four on Friday with a 6-1, 6-4 win over sixth seed Joao Sousa.
Nishikori wasted little time jumping to a 4-0 lead, dominating the lengthy baseline rallies in capturing the opening set. Sousa settled into the match and hung tough with the top seed throughout the second set, but the World No. 5 in the Emirates ATP Rankings secured the critical break up 5-4 to wrap up the contest in 72 minutes.
Nishikori evens his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Sousa to 1-1, with the Portuguese player prevailing via retirement last October in Tokyo.
Since dropping his opening set this week to Diego Schwartzman, Nishikori has lost nine games in his past four sets. The Japanese player is seeking his 12th ATP World Tour title and third on clay, having been the last man standing in Barcelona in 2014 and 2015.
Standing between Nishikori and the final is local favourite Carlos Berlocq, who continued his dream run in the evening session with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Thiago Monteiro. Berlocq is into his second Buenos Aires semi-final in three years (l. Nadal in 2015) and his first ATP World Tour semi-final of 2017. Nishikori and Berlocq are even in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry at 1-1, but they haven’t played in four years.
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Fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta moved into his first semi-final of 2017 by outlasting fifth seed and fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a marathon match. Little separated the players in the early stages, but Carreno Busta went on a four-game run down 2-3 to grab the opening set. Ramos-Vinolas fought back by grabbing the lone break of serve in the second set at 4-4. The fifth seed went up 3-1 in the deciding set, but Carreno Busta saved his best tennis for the end by winning five of the last six games to prevail in two hours and 11 minutes.
Carreno Busta improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Ramos-Vinolas to 2-0, having prevailed against him in a third-set tie-breaker in February 2016 in Sao Paulo. He is making his fourth consecutive appearance in Buenos Aires, but had never won a match here until this year. Carreno Busta currently sits at a career-high No. 25 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.
Next up for him is Alexandr Dolgopolov, who advanced 7-5, 6-4 over Gerald Melzer. The Ukrainian is also through to his first ATP World Tour semi-final of the season. Dolgopolov caused the biggest upset so far this week in Buenos Aires by taking out second seed Pablo Cuevas in the second-round.