February 27, 2012

Copa Claro Tennis Tournament

On Saturday, at the invitation of friends, I took a break from a very busy few weeks of work to watch the semifinals of the Copa Claro tennis tournament, part of the ATP World Tour.

The first match was Nicolás Almagro of Spain vs. Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland. The second match was David Ferrer of Spain against David Nalbandian of Argentina.

Almagro won the tournament last year, but has a reputation for being a poor sport and having problems with other players, so the crowd cheered only for Wawrinka. In the second match, the crowd cheered for the Argentine. The crowd's favorite lost in both matches: Almagro won 7-5 in the third set (needing two sets to win), and Ferrer had an advantage on Nalbandian from the start and won convincingly.




The score before Almagro won the first match:


Early in the second match, a storm blew in, swirling the court's clay dust around the stadium and then raining. Play was suspended until the rain stopped.


Video of Almagro winning the first match, cheering for Argentina-native Nalbandian, and a great rally in the second match:

The next day, Ferrer defeated the defending champion Almagro to win the tournament.

- Ben

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