Fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta weathered a stern test on Thursday from Victor Estrella Burgos to reach the quarter-finals of the Rio Open presented by Claro with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win.
Carreno Busta comfortably cruised through the opening set but Estrella Burgos, who received a Lucky Loser spot into the main draw after Gerald Melzer withdrew due to illness, grabbed the lone break in the second set at 5-4 to send the match into a decider. But the Spaniard was not to be denied, breaking Estrella Burgos twice and dropping just five points on serve to wrap up the contest in one hour and 42 minutes. He improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record over the Dominican Republican player to 2-0.
Next up for Carreno Busta is Alexandr Dolgopolov, who extended his win streak to seven matches with a 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4 victory over Horacio Zeballos. The Ukrainian won his first ATP World Tour title in five years by defeating Kei Nishikori in last week’s Argentina Open final.
The Spaniard will seek revenge on Dolgopolov after losing to him in their lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting last week in the Buenos Aires semi-finals.
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Wild card Casper Ruud recovered from a 1-4 deficit in the deciding set to beat Spanish qualifier Roberto Carballes Baena 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3) in two hours and 45 minutes for a place in his first ATP World Tour quarter-final.
#NextGenATP Norwegian Ruud goes on to face World No. 85 Thiago Monteiro who, in front of a capacity crowd, overcame fellow Brazilian and Kei Nishikori’s conqueror, Thomaz Bellucci, 7-6(8), 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 18 minutes. Bellucci could not convert set point chances at 6/4 and 8/7 in the first set tie-break.