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Reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz moved into the semi-finals of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires.<\/b><\/p>\n
The 20-year-old Spanish world number two gained a 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 victory in the quarter-finals against Italy’s Andrea Vavassori,<\/b> ranked 152nd.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz will face Nicolas Jarry<\/b> of Chile or Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry<\/b> in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Friday, Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner<\/b> advanced into the semi-finals of the Rotterdam Open.<\/p>\n
He was 7-6 (7-4) 1-1 ahead when opponent Milos Raonic<\/b> had to withdraw during the second set because of a right hip injury.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Italian Sinner, who will go third in the world rankings if he wins the indoor tournament, faces Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands in the semi-finals on Saturday.<\/p>\n
“He is for sure one of the toughest opponents to play against,” said Sinner of Raonic in his post-match interview.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
The second semi-final in the Netherlands will be between Australian Alex de Minaur<\/b> and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov<\/b>, who beat Andrey Rublev and Alexander Shevchenko respectively.<\/p>\n
There is guaranteed to be a home finalist in the Argentina Open as the second semi-final is between Facundo Diaz Acosta<\/b> and Federico Coria<\/b>.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“I played better in the second set and his level went down a bit and I took my chances.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n