(Tennis news) Federico Coria had a tough fight in his match against Dusan Lajovic in the second round of the Argentina Open. Lajovic had a great first half as he won the first three games of the match, he set up a 5-1 lead in the first set and derailed Coria’s comeback at the end of the set. The Serbian was 5-3 in the second set as he was two points away from advancing to the next round when the 29 year old applied the brakes on his rampage and set his own course by winning the next 4 games.

The world number 37 could never recover from the second set attack as he lost consecutive points from the 2nd game till the 4th one. The Argentine may have had his roots helping him hold a grasp over the match as he secured a three set victory in 2 and half hours. Coria defeated Lajovic 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Casper Ruud played a match after a month as he had to withdraw from the Australian Open due to an ankle injury. Ruud did need some time to get used to the court against Roberto Carballes Baena, the world number 8 found his flair in the tiebreak as he won by a comfortable margin. In the second set, the Norwegian needed just one breakpoint to take a 2-0 lead but Baena recovered by breaking serve to make it 3-3. In the next game, the Spaniard’s could not win a single point on his serve as he was down a break and a double fault on matchpoint gave Ruud the victory. Ruud defeated Baena 7-6(7-2), 6-3.

“I know Federico well,” Ruud said, previewing their Friday quarter-final—a rematch of the 2021 Swedish Open final, won by the Norwegian. “Last year we played in Bastad, so it was my home court, and now we’re playing here in Buenos Aires, so it’s his home. It will be tough for me, and I hope I can play a good match and of course feel the good energy from the stadium.”

Fernando Verdasco made it into the quarterfinals for the first time at the event in his fourth attempt. Verdasco was down 1-4 in the first set and in the next game Thiago Monteiro needed 7 deuces to make it 5-1 as the Spaniard made a late fightback. The inspiration continued in the next set as the 38 year old was now in the lead with the exact score as the first set 4-1 and Monteiro could only two more games of his serve. In the final set, the Brazilian couldn’t hold on to an early break as the veteran had the final call even though he was 3 points away from losing the match in the 9th game. Verdasco defeated Monteiro 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Lorenzo Sonego will also be a first time quarterfinalist when he faces Verdasco next, the Italian needed 2 hours to get past the fourth round. Sonego had faced Sebastian Baez at Sydney International a month ago and the results were similar. The 3rd seed was clearly too powerful for Baez as the Argentine had his supporters but it was not enough to overthrow his opponent’s form. The 21 year old had a lot of chances in the second to break serve but could not convert any as the world number 22 had just 2 chances and converted one to progress to his third quarterfinal of the 2022 season. Sonego defeated Baez 6-3, 6-3.

Also read: Del Potro makes emotional comeback at Argentina Open