ATP: Rafael Nadal continues Argentina advance; ‘Bad loss’ for Grigor Dimitrov in Acapulco

Rafael Nadal breezed past Facundo Arguello 6-4, 6-0 to reach the Argentina Open quarters on Wednesday, while Grigor Dimitrov was surprisingly knocked out by Ryan Harrison in Mexico.

Rafael Nadal shown at the Argentina Open ATP tournament on Tuesday. David Fernandez/ EPA / February 24, 2015

ATP Buenos Aires

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal overcame some uncharacteristic nerves to surge into the quarter-finals of the ATP Argentina Open on Wednesday with an efficient 6-4, 6-0 victory over Argentine qualifier Facundo Arguello.

Nadal, ranked fourth in the world, needed just 64 minutes to win his opening match in the clay court tournament, booking a clash with Federico Delbonis.

The Spaniard’s 714th career win gave him sole possession of 10th on the all-time list in the Open Era, ahead of Boris Becker.

Nadal admitted he felt a few nerves opening his Buenos Aires campaign after a semi-final loss to Italian Fabio Fognini in Rio last week.

“It’s never easy to open when you have lost a match like the one I lost in Rio de Janeiro,” he said. “I started a little nervous, and Arguello played very well in the first set.

“In the second I felt more comfortable and I was able to attack more.”

Nadal’s loss to Fognini – which ended a run of 52 straight semi-final clay court wins stretching back 12 years – saw the Spaniard drop from third to fourth in the world, the first time he hasn’t figured in the top three since August 2013.

This week he’s trying to reassert his dominance on clay. He is one clay court title away from Guillermo Vilas’s record of 46 triumphs on the surface.

Delbonis, in a re-match of last year’s Sao Paulo final, once again triumphed over Italian Paolo Lorenzi with a 6-4, 6-2 win.

Third-seeded Pablo Cuevas reached his third straight quarter-final with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 victory over Guido Andreozzi.

Cuevas produced seven aces to beat the local wild card. He will next face hometown favourite Juan Monaco, who upset fellow Argentine and fifth seed Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-4.

ATP Acapulco

Defending champion Grigor Dimitrov suffered a shock defeat to Ryan Harrison in the second round of the Mexican Open in Acapulco.

The Bulgarian third seed had beaten Harrison in last year’s US Open but the American had his revenge in Mexico, claiming his first ever win over a top-10 ranked opponent.

The pair traded sets but Harrison flourished in the decider to come through 7-5, 4-6, 6-0.

“It happens,” said Dimitrov on the ATP Tour website. “It’s just the way it is. It’s a bad loss for me, but best of luck to Ryan in the upcoming rounds.”

There were no such dramas for top two seeds Kei Nishikori and David Ferrer, both of whom booked their places in the quarter-finals with straight sets victories.

Last year’s US Open finalist Nishikori lost just four games against Yen-Hsun Lu, with the Japanese needing just under an hour in a 6-1, 6-3 victory to set up a clash with fifth seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, who defeated Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-2, 6-3.

Second seed Ferrer was made to work a little harder before prevailing 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 against Marinko Matosevic. The Spaniard set up an intriguing encounter with highly-rated young Australian Bernard Tomic, who upset eighth seeded German Benjamin Becker 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Kevin Anderson and Ivo Karlovic, seeded fourth and sixth respectively, were taken to three sets before sealing their places in the last eight, while seventh seed Santiago Giraldo succumbed to a 3-6, 4-6 defeat to Viktor Troicki.

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