ARGENTINA OPEN: DAY 5 MEDIA NOTES Friday, February 12, 2016 Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club, Buenos Aires, Argentina | February 8 - 14, 2016 Draw: S-28, D-16 | Prize Money: $598,865 | Surface: Clay ATP Info: Tournament Info: ATP PR & Marketing: www.ATPWorldTour.com www.argentinaopenatp.com Edward La Cava: [email protected] @ATPWorldTour @Argentinaopen Maria Garcia-Planas: [email protected] facebook.com/ATPWorldTour facebook.com/ATPbuenosaires250 Press Room: 5411 4775 8228 TOP 3 ACTIVE CLAY COURT SPECIALISTS IN QUARTER-FINAL ACTION QUARTER-FINALMATCHES: The top three players for clay court wins amongst active players are in quarter-final action on Friday at the Argentina Open. The “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal is No. 1 on the list with a career 345-30 record and 47 titles on clay. He is joined in the quarter-finals by No. 2 David Ferrer (304-117, 12 titles) and No. 3 Nicolas Almagro (260-128, 12 titles). The first quarter-final is the second meeting between Austrian No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem and Serbian Dusan Lajovic. The 22-year-old Thiem, who is youngest player in the Top 20 Emirates ATP Rankings, is appearing in his second ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year and 13th overall (7-5 mark). The 25- year-old Lajovic has a career 0-7 record (0-6 on clay) in ATP World tour quarter-finals. Following Italian Paolo Lorenzi looks for his first career win over a Top 10 opponent (0-10 record) when he faces the defending champion Nadal. Rafa won their only previous meeting in three sets in the second round at 2011 Rome. The 34-year-old Lorenzi is attempting to reach his third career ATP World Tour semi-final. Last week reached second career ATP World Tour semi-final at Quito (l. to Bellucci). In the third quarter-final 2011 champion Almagro has never defeated the French No. 3 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in six previous meetings. The 30-year-old Almagro is appearing in first ATP World Tour quarter- final of the year and first since reaching the finals at Kitzbühel (l. to Mathieu) last August. The 30-year- old Tsonga is appearing in second ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year and first on clay since reaching the semi-finals last year at Roland Garros (l. to eventual champion Wawrinka). The last match is the third meeting and first since 2010 between Uruguayan No. 8 seed Pablo Cuevas and three-time champion Ferrer (2012-14). The pair are facing each other for the first time since 2010, when Ferrer won both their meetings in straight sets. Cuevas has a career 2-6 record vs Top 10 opponents, wins over No. 5 Berdych at 2015 Beijing and No. 8 Roddick at 2011 Miami. DAY 5 FEDEX ATP HEAD 2 HEADS – In Order of Play by Court COURT CENTRAL GUILLERMO VILAS Dusan Lajovic (SRB) vs [5] Dominic Thiem (AUT) Thiem Leads 1-0 15 Umag (Croatia) Clay R16 Dominic Thiem 6-1 3-1 ret Lajovic FastFacts: 2016 Highlights: YTD W-L: 3-3 (2-1 on clay) YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: June 30, 1990 Emirates ATP Ranking: 79 Buenos Aires W-L (Best Result): 2-1 (QF in 2016) The 25-year-old opened with a 76(7) 63 win over Lucky Loser Facundo Arguello on Tuesday and followed with 76(10) 46 76(6) win over No. 4 seed John Isner on Wednesday. He is playing here for the second time fell in 1R last year (l. to Gimeno-Traver) as a qualifier in his tournament debut Appearing in 8th career ATP World Tour QF (0-7, 0-6 on clay) and first since last year at Kitzbühel (l. to Almagro) Last week fell in 1R at Quito (l. to Ramos-Vinolas) Argentina Open Day 5 – Friday, February 12, 2016 Page 2 of 4 www.ATPWorldTour.com Opened season with 1R loss at Brisbane (l. to Stepanek), fell in qualifying at Sydney (l. to Mahut in Q2) and reached 2R at Australian Open (l. to Bautista Agut) In 2015, Serb finished in Top 100 of Emirates ATP Rankings for 2nd straight season Earned career-high 17 tour-level wins, including 1R victory at Roland Garros (d. M. Gonzalez, l. to eventual champion Wawrinka) Thiem FastFacts: 2016 Highlights: SF: Brisbane (l Federer) YTD W-L: 6-3 (1-0 on clay) YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 3 Date of Birth: September 3, 1993 Emirates ATP Ranking: 19 Buenos Aires W-L (Best Result): 1-0 (2R in 2016) The 22-year-old, who is the youngest player in the Top 20 Emirates ATP Ranking, defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 60 36 63 in his tournament debut on Tuesday and followed with a 36 76(7) 63 win over Portuguese qualifier Gastao Elias on Wednesday Appearing in 13th career ATP World Tour QF (7-5 record) and has won last 6 QF matches. Last loss was at Munich (l. to Melzer) last April Playing first event since reaching 3R at Australian Open (l. to Goffin) Opened year by reaching 7th career ATP World Tour SF at Brisbane (d. Cilic in QF, l. to Federer), ret. down 76(2) 22 in 2R at Sydney (l. to Muller) due to blisters In 2015, Austrian improved his year-end Emirates ATP Ranking for 5th straight season and finished as youngest player in Top 20 Achieved career-high No. 18 on August 10 after reaching SF at Kitzbühel Captured 1st 3 ATP World Tour titles of career -- all on clay: Nice (d. L. Mayer 76 in 3rd), Umag (d. Sousa) and Gstaad (d. Goffin) Won career-high 36 matches (previous-best was 22 in 2014) [1/WC] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) Nadal Leads 1-0 11 ATP Masters 1000 Rome (Italy) Clay R32 Rafael Nadal 6-7(5) 6-4 6-0 Nadal FastFacts: 2016 Highlights: F: Doha (l Djokovic) YTD W-L: 5-2 (1-0 on clay) YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 67 Date of Birth: June 3, 1986 Emirates ATP Ranking: 5 Buenos Aires W-L (Best Result): 7-1 (Winner in 2015) The 29-year-old opened with a 64 64 win over Juan Monaco. Last year he defeated Monaco in the finals to capture his 46th career clay court. He is playing here for the third time, also reached the QF in 2005 (l. to Gaudio), and has a 7-1 tournament record The top ranked Spaniard is playing in his first tournament since falling in the 1R at Australian Open (l. to Verdasco in 5-sets). It was just the second time in his career that he had lost in the 1R of a major – 2013 Wimbledon (l. to Darcis) Opened year by reached finals at Doha (l. to Djokovic) In 2015, Spaniard finished in Top 5 of Emirates ATP Rankings for 11th straight season Captured titles at Buenos Aires (d. Monaco), Stuttgart (d. Troicki) and Hamburg (d. Fognini), while also reaching finals at ATP Masters 1000 Madrid (l. to No. 3 Murray), Beijing (l. to No. 1 Djokovic) and Basel (l. to No. 3 Federer) Lorenzi FastFacts: 2016 Highlights: SF: Quito (l Bellucci) YTD W-L: 5-3 (5-1 on clay) YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Argentina Open Day 5 – Friday, February 12, 2016 Page 3 of 4 www.ATPWorldTour.com Date of Birth: December 15, 1981 Emirates ATP Ranking: 52 Buenos Aires W-L (Best Result): 4-3 (QF in 2016) The 34-year-old advanced to the QF here for the first time with a 46 63 61 win over Diego Schwartzman on Thursday. Opened with a 26 75 62 win over Pablo Andujar on Tuesday. Also reached the 2R last year (l. to Delbonis). He is playing here for the 4th time and has a 4-3 tournament record Attempting to reach 3rd career ATP World Tour SF. Last week reached 2nd career ATP World Tour SF at Quito (l. to Bellucci). Previous SF appearance came en route to only career final at 2014 Sao Paulo (l. to Delbonis) In opening month fell in 1R at Doha (l. to Andujar) and Australian Open (l. to Dimitrov). Captured 17th career Challenger title at Canberra (d. Dodig) and reached final at Bucaramanga (l. to Melzer). Career 17-14 record in Challenger finals In 2015, Italian finished in Top 100 of Emirates ATP Rankings for 4th time Career 0-10 vs Top 10 opponents Nicolas Almagro (ESP) vs [3] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) Tsonga Leads 6-0 10 Australian Open (Australia) Hard R16 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3 6-4 4-6 6-7(6) 9-7 10 ATP Masters 1000 Monte Carlo (Monaco) Clay R32 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6(5) 7-5 10 Barcelona (Spain) Clay R16 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 5-7 6-1 6-4 11 ATP Masters 1000 Madrid (Spain)Clay R64 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1 6-3 11 ATP Masters 1000 Canada (Canada) Hard QF Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4 6-4 12 ATP Masters 1000 Paris (France) Hard R16 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6(4) 7-6(3) Almagro FastFacts: 2016 Highlights: YTD W-L: 3-2 (2-0 on clay) YTD Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 12 Date of Birth: August 21, 1985 Emirates ATP Ranking: 72 Buenos Aires W-L (Best Result): 27-9 (Winner in 2011) The 30-year-old Spaniard and 2011 champion (d. Chela) defeated Federico Delbonis 63 46 64 to reach the QF on Wednesday. Knocked off qualifier Albert Montanes 63 63 in the 1R on Monday. He is making his 11th appearance here and has a 27-9 tournament record.