Roberto Bautista Agut enjoys a great time in Antwerp | ATP Tour

Antwerp

Bautista Agut enjoys a great time in Antwerp

The Spaniard seeks the second indoor title of his career

October 16, 2024

In the shelter of the covered courts, Roberto Bautista Agut wants to display the tennis that took him to the top of the ATP Tour. The Spaniard reached the quarterfinals this Wednesday at the European Open in Antwerp, equaling the best result achieved in the entire 2024 season. At 36 years old, having become one of the great veterans of the locker room, experience guides a player who seeks write brilliant pages in an unfinished book.

The former No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings deciphered a high-voltage match, defeating Argentine Tomás Martín Etcheverry 7-6(2), 6-4 to place himself among the eight strongest in the tournament. Bautista resisted in a match of pure concentration, accepting the 17 aces connected by his rival to find his way to victory. The Spaniard, who only gave up two points on serve in the second set, relied on discipline to complete one of his biggest triumphs of the year.

With a record of 21-19 on the season, Bautista Agut is in the ATP Tour quarterfinals (Hong Kong, Mallorca) for the third time in 2024, underscoring his perseverance despite the passage of time. After two years away from titles, the man from Castellón is looking for a new boost on the Belgian deck.

Roberto presents ideal weapons to stand out in the conditions indoor that Belgium presents this week. Thanks to his flat shots and a natural ease in competing on the attack, the Spaniard has added an important haul throughout his career, with more than 80 indoor victories and an ATP Tour crown (Sofia 2016) as important endorsements in the locker room.

The road in Antwerp will test the toughness of Bautista Agut at 36 years old, in a field full of big names. The Spaniard will play the quarterfinals against the third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime or the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, his executioner in the only previous visit to the tournament in the 2021 season.

This week’s momentum extends a good run of form for Bautista Agut. The man from Castellón, who in recent weeks added a victory at the US Open, contributed to Spain’s passage to the Final Phase of the Davis Cup and surpassed the previous phase in Beijing, seeks to take advantage of his speed on the covered courts that will close the season.

Meanwhile, at the end of the day, another Spaniard, Roberto Carballes Baena, gave work to the favorite Alex De Miñaur, who overcame an adverse start and finally took the victory 2-6, 6-4 and 6-2 to secure a place in the quarterfinals.

The Australian still has a chance of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals and is back on Tour. “It’s never easy to come back from an injury, so I’m happy we were able to win today,” said de Minaur, who has been recovering from a hip injury that forced him to abandon the Asian tour. “It took me a lot of fighting and effort, so I’m happy to get my first victory here in Antwerp.

De Minaur is currently ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, 425 points behind eighth-placed Andrey Rublev, who enters action on Thursday in Stockholm. The Australian, who reached the 2020 final in Antwerp, will face Hugo Gastón, who beat Mariano Navone in an exciting second round duel. The Frenchman won by a hard-fought 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-6(4) in two hours and 50 minutes against the Argentine, one of the revelations of 2024.

Did you know that…?
Roberto Bautista suffered a broken fibula in 2023 while riding a horse, one of his great passions off the track. The Spaniard, who fell out of the world Top 100 for the first time in a decade due to the mishap, can return this week to the Top 50 of the PIF ATP Rankings if he reaches the final in Antwerp.