Rio de Janeiro, Feb 22 (IANS): Uruguayan tennis player Pablo Cuevas, Spaniard Albert Ramos, Serbia's Laslo Djere and Norwegian Casper Ruud have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Rio de Janeiro Open, the only ATP 500 tournament in South America.
Cuevas, who won the main Brazilian tournament in 2016, will face Ramos, while Djere and Ruud will play for another spot in the semi-finals, reports Efe news.
On Wednesday, Spain's Jaume Munar (66), Bolivia's Hugo Dellien (113), Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene (83) and Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime (104) all made it through to the quarter-finals.
Munar will face Auger Aliassime, the 18-year-old Canadian rising star who won the support of Brazilian fans, and Bedene will take on Dellien, so far the big surprise in Brazil.
Cuevas, now the favourite after the elimination of all top players, moved to the next phase after sweeping aside the Argentinian Juan Ignacio Londero 6-1, 6-4 (69) on Thursday.
The Uruguayan was superior throughout the game and only needed 22 minutes to take the first set.
Cuevas had reached the Round of 16 after eliminating the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, who won the Brazilian title last year in the first round.
Meanwhile, Ramos advanced to the next phase by beating Argentina's Federico Delbonis 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Also on Thursday, Laslo Djere of Serbia, who in the first round had eliminated title favourite Dominic Thiem, won 6-4, 6-2 against the Japanese Taro Daniel to reach the quarter-finals.
He will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud, who on Thursday eliminated the Portuguese Joao Sousa 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
This year's title favourites in Rio were eliminated in the first round, including Austria's Thiem, who won the tournament in 2017, Italy's Fabio Fognini, Marco Cecchinato and Schwartzman.
In the doubles competition, the big surprise was the elimination of the Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares, 17th in the world rankings and favourites in Rio.
Melo and Soares were knocked out by the Brazilians Thomaz Bellucci and Rogerio Dutra Silva, who won 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 10-5 in a game lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Belluci and Dutra Silva will play the first semi-final on Friday against the Argentinian Andres Molteni and the Czech Roman Jebavy.
The Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Roberto Farah reached the semi-finals after defeating the British pair Jonny O'Mara and Luke Bambridge 6-2, 6-3.
In the other semi-final, the Colombians will meet the duo made up of Argentina's Maximo González and Chile's Nicolas Jarry.
The Brazilian tournament will continue until Sunday on the clay courts of the Brazilian Jockey Club. The champion will take home a prize of 369,000 dollars and 500 ATP points and the other finalist $185,325 and 300 ATP points.