Argentinian tennis players Francisco Cerúndolo (1st seed) and Sebastián Báez (3rd seed) will play their matches on Friday, aiming to reach the semifinals of the ATP 250 tournament in Santiago, Chile.
Cerúndolo, the highest-ranked Argentinian in the ATP rankings, will be the first to take the court. He will face American Emilio Nava no earlier than 15:00 local time. Just a few weeks ago, Cerúndolo won the most important title of his career at the Argentina Open. On Thursday, the Argentinian made a comfortable debut in the Chilean tournament, defeating the Dane Elmer Møller 6-2, 6-2. Cerúndolo aims to end the week with a new title, which would be the fifth of his career and would allow him to approach the top 15 of the world rankings.
Báez, for his part, will close the day's play when he faces the local Alejandro Tabilo (8th seed) no earlier than 20:00. The player from Buenos Aires started the tour with strong semifinals at the Argentina Open. However, he dropped many positions in the rankings after losing in his debut at the ATP 500 in Rio, where he was defending the title. Báez is also defending the final he reached last year in Santiago, so he is forced to keep advancing to stop losing places in the world rankings.
The day on Friday in Santiago began with the match between the German Yannick Hanfmann and the Lithuanian Vilius Gaubas, while another match of the day will feature the Italian Luciano Darderi (2nd seed) facing his compatriot Andrea Pellegrino at 18:30.
