Federico Coria and Facundo Bagnis smile on the court and there will be an Argentine finalist at the ATP Córdoba

The ATP 250 in Córdoba will have an Argentine finalist. Federico Coria He surprised Tomás Etcheverry, third seed, beating him this Friday 6-3 and 6-4 and will clash on Saturday at 6pm in the semi-final against another Rosario player like Facundo Bagniswhich left the Spaniards on the road Jaume Munar by 7-5 and 6-4.

Sebastiano Baez he will be the other Argentine protagonist of the day, because this Friday he defeated with solvency Facundo Diaz Acosta to meet the man born in Villa Gesell but naturalized Italian Luciano Darderi. The man from Buenos Aires, who gave Argentina a place in the Davis Cup finals last weekend, is the reigning champion.

“Córdoba is my place. I get here and feel in a good mood. I encourage myself to compete against anyone. I don’t see the ranking”said Coria, 93rd in the world.

His record proves it, he will play his own this Saturday fifth semifinal at ATP level and three of them participated in the tournament held at the Mario Alberto Kempes Sports Center. When was the last time you had three wins in a row? Just at the ATP 250 in Córdoba last year, when he achieved four victories before falling to Báez in the final.

This Friday was one of the best victories of his career thanks to the quality of Etcheverry, which is one of the most important rackets in South American tennis, but also for the level of play he exhibited. He was decisive from the baseline and dominated the scene for many moments, but he also knew how to suffer and resisted the power of his rival very well. Thus they won in two hard-fought sets, in an hour and 49 minutes of play.

“I experienced it relaxed. When you play against someone with a better ranking you feel more relaxed. I used this to my advantage. I arrived with pace and managed to beat Tomy with very few unforced errors.”analyzed after his passage to the semi-finals.

Etcheverry is declining in performance. After his good performance at the Australian Open, where he beat Andy Murray and Gael Monfils before losing to Novak Djokovic in the third round, his time in South America fell short of his expectations. He lost in the Davis Cup against Timofey Skatov (278th) and has now said goodbye to Córdoba.

Bagnis, on the other hand, is happy. By beating Munar at 33 years, 11 months and 11 days, he became the third oldest Argentine tennis player to reach the semi-final of an ATP tournament, after Guillermo Vilas (34 years and 11 months at Prague 1987) and Carlos Berlocq (34 years and 11 days). 10 days in Buenos Aires 2017). It is the third semi-final of his career, after those in Córdoba and Viña del Mar in 2021

“It’s not easy to get through the qualifiers and win three matches at this level. I’m not used to making a semi-final in an ATP and you have to avoid letting your head relax.”Bagnis explained. And he concluded: “Sometimes the results don’t come and at this age you rethink things. My colleagues are all leaving and that doesn’t help, eh. Working for the result is the goal and when these things happen you have to have fun”.