Sebastián Báez and Tomás Etcheverry will animate an Argentinian semifinal at the ATP 250 in Santiago de Chile

The South American tour of the slow courts had started very well with a 100% Argentine final at the Mario Alberto Kempes Sports Center: Sebastián Báez and Federico Coria defined Córdoba’s title and the former obtained what, to date, is the only title in a compatriot in the circuit.

In the following two weeks, however, in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro there was not a single Argentine in the semifinals: in the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires Francisco Cerúndolo and Tomás Etcheverry reached the quarterfinals and in the ATP 500 in Rio only Báez has reached that instance. The good sensations were recovered this week on the clay of the Santiago Open: is that Báez and Etcheverry won, they went to the semifinals and, moreover, since they will face each other this Saturday in the first round, they guaranteed the presence of an Argentinian in tomorrow’s final.

The day was opened by Etcheverry who obtained an excellent victory – especially for the strength with which he obtained it – against the Serbian Dusan Lajovic. The player from La Plata won 6-1, 6-2 in a match in which he has never had problems against an opponent he has faced for the first time. It will be the first semifinal in his career for a tennis player on the rise who, starting Monday, will be among the best 70 players in the world for at least the first time in his career.

Then the one who won was Báez. Against another Serbian he hadn’t played against either, he prevailed with a little more difficulty. Laslo Djere claimed the Buenos Aires player who ended up winning 7-6 (7-4) and 6-4. In the first set they reached the tiebreak without breaking serve and in the second a break by Báez managed to break the tie to advance to a tournament in which he was a finalist last year.

Báez and Etcheverry, of the same generation – the former is from 2000 and the latter from 1999 – have only met once on the circuit. In the first round of the brick dust in Lyon last year, Báez largely prevailed: 6-2 and 6-1. Of course, they also played in ITF tournaments (four times in 2019) and there were two victories per team.