Francisco Comesana stuns Zverev to reach Rio final four

Argentinian Francisco Comesana reached the last four of the Rio Open by edging out German Alexander Zverev, the top seed, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Jockey Club Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

“I was repeating myself all the match, how good is it to be a alive,” he said. “Always enjoying during the entire match, I don’t know, it came to me.”

Comesana, ranked 86, saved a match point to defeat Nicolas Jarry in the second round. All three of his wins have come in three sets in Rio, and he’s into his first career ATP semi-final.

The 24-year-old has played the fifth and eighth-longest matches in Rio Open history this week. He needed three hours and 21 minutes to defeat Gustavo Heide of Brazil in the first round, and it took 3:14 for him to get past Jarry, as he saved a pair of match points in the process.

On Friday against Zverev he needed two hours and 32 minutes to attain his best career win. He is now 2-0 against the top 10, after his win over sixth-ranked Andrey Rublev at Wimbledon last year.

He was close to Zverev throughout the contest, and forced a decider by not surrendering a single break in the second set. He made a break in the sixth game stand up, and saved two break points as he served the set out.

After rallying from 4-1 down in the third, Comesana pulled a rabbit out of the hat at 4-4, scrambling all over the court to win what will likely go down as the point of the tournament.

“I was lucky, I have to say,” he said after the match, with a smile.

He had the momentum at that point and he didn’t let it go. Not only did Comesana win the final five points of the match, he held at love to serve out the victory, never even letting Zverev have a chance to create any opportunities in the final game.

“I think it’s because all the hard work I’ve been doing to be here,” he said. “I have to be grateful for this moment and I’m enjoying it.”

Comesana, ranked No 86, will play the winner of the match between Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo, the No 4 seed, and Frenchman Alexandre Muller next.

Ahead of his victory, the Argentinian defeated Brazilian wildcard Gustavo Heide (7-6 (2), 6-7 (7), 6-3) and edged out Chilean Nicolas Jarry, the No 6 seed (7-6 (4), 6-7 (1), 7-6 (6)).

Zverev, ranked No 2, won against Chinese Yunchaokete Bu (7-6 (4), 6-4) and Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko (7-6 (1), 7-6 (6)) earlier in the tournament.

Rio de Janeiro ATP 500, other quarter-finals results (Jockey Club Brasileiro, clay, USD 2.396.115, most recent results first):

• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Alexandre Muller
• Camilo Ugo Carabelli (LL) beat Jaime Faria (LL): 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Sebastian Baez (5) beat Chun-Hsin Tseng (Q): 6-4, 6-1