Players from Argentina, Brazil and Colombia progressed to the men’s singles quarterfinals on Thursday’s rain-delayed first day at the Copa Guga Kuerten, part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour and one of the events during Guga Kuerten week, hosted by the three-time Roland Garros champion and former world No. 1 in Florianopolis, Brazil.
After the rain stopped and play got underway, Christophe Royet came back from losing a narrow first set to defeat fellow Brazilian Marco Vasconcelos 57 62 60 to book a quarterfinal against Colombia’s Fabio Padilla, who opened his account with a 62 62 win over Flavio Santos.
Only one of the four quarterfinals will feature an all-Brazilian line-up after top seed Rafael Medeiros dropped just one game to Adalberto Rodrigues to set up a meeting with Jader Caser.
The other two quarterfinals will see Argentinean players face Brazilian opposition. Brazilian second seed Carlos Santos had a tougher opening match, but came through 64 63 against Luiz Carlos Ferreira to meet Argntina’s Jose Castricini after Castricini started with a 63 62 win over Enrique Rodrigues.
Meanwhile, Zilmar Pires ended any chance of an all-Argentinean quarterfinal after the Brazilian player beat Francisco Avaro 75 64 to set up a contest against Mario Garcia.