Reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz moved into the semi-finals of the Argentina Open with a straight-set win over Italy‘s Andrea Vavassori.
The Spanish world number two, 20, won 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 in the quarter-finals against the 152nd-ranked Italian.
Top seed Alcaraz will face Chilean third seed Nicolas Jarry in the semi-finals in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
Jarry, 28, advanced after Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry had to retire from their quarter-final with injury.
Sixth seed Etcheverry, 24, took the first set 6-4 but injured his right leg during the second – which Jarry won 7-5 – and was forced to withdraw before the decider.
Earlier on Friday, Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner advanced into the semi-finals of the Rotterdam Open.
He was 7-6 (7-4) 1-1 ahead when opponent Milos Raonic had to retire during the second set because of a right hip injury.
Sinner had saved two set points in the 10th game before taking the opening set tie-break and it was level in the second set when former Wimbledon finalist Raonic pulled out to hand Sinner his 200th win on the ATP Tour.
Italian Sinner, who will go third in the world rankings if he wins the indoor tournament, faces Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands on Saturday.
“He is for sure one of the toughest opponents to play against,” said Sinner of Raonic in his post-match interview.
“From the past two rounds I was struggling a little bit to find myself on the court. I felt like he was playing better than me the first set.
“This is not how you want to win this match. He had so many injuries throughout his career and hopefully he will have a speedy recovery.”
The second semi-final in the Netherlands will be between Australian Alex de Minaur and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, who beat Andrey Rublev and Alexander Shevchenko respectively.
There is guaranteed to be a home finalist in the Argentina Open as the second semi-final is between Facundo Diaz Acosta and Federico Coria.
Alcaraz is the firm title favourite at this stage, and after beating Vavassori he said: “In the first set he played at such a high level with his serve and he was really tough to return in really challenging conditions with the wind.
“I played better in the second set and his level went down a bit and I took my chances.”
