Comesaña topples Zverev and joins Muller in Rio semi-finals

After losing in the quarter-finals in Buenos Aires last week, world No. 2 Alexander Zverev was hoping to reassure himself in Rio de Janeiro at an ATP 500 tournament.

After two wins over Bu Yunchaokete and Alexander Shevchenko, the Brazilian number 1 seed faced Francisco Comesaña.

The Argentinian, for his part, won two big matches to reach this stage of the competition. He defeated Gustavo Heide (7-6, 6-7, 6-3) before taking out Nicolas Jarry (7-6, 6-7, 7-6) in 3 hours.

However, Comesaña's task against this year's Australian Open runner-up was a delicate one, especially as the 24-year-old has only won 6 matches on the ATP circuit to date.

In fact, it was the German who got off to the best possible start, winning the first set, but just as in his quarter-final encounter with Cerundolo in Buenos Aires, Zverev was unable to hold on.

Comesaña, ranked 86th in the ATP world rankings (and virtually 67th with his performance in Brazil), eventually turned the tables.

Trailing 4 games to 1 in the third and final set, the Argentine found the resources to hang on and finally win the last five games of the match to take the win after a battle lasting over 2h30 (4-6, 6-3, 6-4).

Comesaña reaches the last four, where he will meet Alexandre Muller, who defeated Francisco Cerundolo.

The Frenchman will be alone against three Argentinians in the semi-finals. The other semi-final match pits Sebastian Baez (who defeated Tseng in two sets) against Camilo Ugo Carabelli (who eliminated Jaime Faria in two tight sets).