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Carlos Alcaraz defeated Britain's Cameron Norrie in the final to win the 2023 Argentina Open
Reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz has reached the semi-finals of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires.
The 20-year-old Spanish world number two achieved a 7:6 (7:1) 6:1 victory in the quarterfinals against the Italian Andrea Vavassori, who is ranked 152nd.
Alcaraz will face Nicolas Jarry from Chile or Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the semifinals.
The previous Friday, Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner reached the semi-finals of the Rotterdam Open.
He was ahead 7-6 (7-4) 1-1 when opponent Milos Raonic had to retire in the second set due to a right hip injury.
Sinner had saved two set points in the tenth game before securing the first set tiebreak, and it was level in the second set when former Wimbledon finalist Raonic pulled away, giving Sinner his 200th win on the ATP Tour.
The Italian Sinner, who would reach third place in the world rankings if he wins the indoor tournament, will face Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands in the semi-finals on Saturday.
“He’s definitely one of the toughest opponents you can play against,” Sinner said of Raonic in his post-game interview.
“Since the last two laps I had a bit of trouble finding my way around the course. I felt like he played better than me in the first set.”
“That’s not how you want to win this game. He has had so many injuries throughout his career and hopefully he will recover quickly.”
The second semi-final in the Netherlands will be played between Australia's Alex de Minaur and Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated Andrey Rublev and Alexander Shevchenko respectively.
The Argentina Open is guaranteed to have a home finalist as the second semi-final takes place between Facundo Diaz Acosta and Federico Coria.
Alcaraz is the clear favorite for the title at this point and after beating Vavassori he said: “In the first set he was playing at such a high level with his serve and it was really difficult to get him back in really difficult conditions and the wind.”
“I played better in the second set and his level dropped a bit and I took advantage of my chances.”
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