12-26-2019, 01:04 AM
SAO PAULO - Paolo Lorenzi of Italy reached his first ATP semifinal by upsetting fourth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 6-4 at the Brazil Open on Friday. Kevin Porter Jersey . The 114th-ranked Lorenzi broke Monacos serve to go up 4-3 in the decisive set and held on to close the match in 2 hours, 34 minutes at the Ibirapuera Arena. The 32-year-old Italian squandered a match point before losing the second set, but was in control in the third to pick up the win in the ATP 250 tournament in South Americas biggest city. Lorenzi, who had 12 aces, made it to the semis for the first time after five quarterfinal losses in his career. "Im very happy to finally breakthrough to the semifinals," Lorenzi said. "Ive had a lot of opportunities before but was never able to come up with the victory at this stage. For sure this is one of my greatest weeks on the tour." The 43rd-ranked Monaco, a former top 10 in the world, was trying to win his 200th clay-court match. He is the fifth-greatest winner in the surface, behind Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Almagro. Monaco had a set point in the first set but couldnt capitalize on it. "It was a very close match, he had his chances in the first set and I had mine in the second, it was very difficult," Lorenzi said. The Italian will play either top-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany or Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, who play their quarterfinal match later Friday. In the other quarterfinal Friday, Federico Delbonis of Argentina easily beat Alberto Montanes of Spain 6-4, 6-3 in just over an hour. He will play either home-crowd favourite Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil or Martin Klizan of Slovakia. The 61st-ranked Delbonis had upset three-time Brazil Open champion Almagro in the second round. Defending champion Rafael Nadal is not playing at the clay-court tournament this year. He chose to play at the first edition of the Rio Open, which he won last week. ___ Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni Darius Garland Jersey . The visitors missed a host of good chances to win the game, and were left to rue substitute Ivo Ilicevics strike against the crossbar in the 86th minute, when he only had the goalkeeper to beat. Craig Ehlo Jersey . Only it wasnt the extended right pad of his old teammate Jonathan Bernier early in the final frame, it was James Reimer, who stole a night that was supposed to belong to the former King. https://www.cheapcavaliers.com/1112q-tyr...liers.html . - Aroldis Chapman, with two black eyes, has returned to the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse four days after being hit in the face by a line drive.UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman will undergo surgery on both his knees next week to repair lingering issues dating back to his high school wrestling days, according to a report from Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight. Helwani said that Weidman has been dealing with recurring swelling and pain in his knees related to torn meniscus he suffered as a teenager and the problems came to a head last week when he suffered prolonged swelling and pain in his left knee, resulting in the decision to undergo an arthroscopic scope procedure to clean up the tear in both knees. "Its something hes been battling throughout his career. About every six months, the left one would get locked up. It just happened twice in the last week aand swelled up and has been painful," said Helwani on UFC Tonight. Eric Snow Jersey. "So he decided get it cleaned up and get a scope of the left knee and while he was at it, he decided to get the right one cleaned out as well, which was operated on in high school." The champions pending surgery and subsequent recovery time has forced a postponement of the UFC 173 main event on May 24, a title bout against Lyoto Machida. The fight will now headline UFC 175 in Las Vegas on July 5, UFC officials announced earlier this week. "Hes having surgery on Tuesday," Helwani said. "Theyre anticipating a four-week recovery and dont expect any problems to be ready for the fight on July 5th." ' ' '