Rafael Nadal criticises Rio Open schedule

Rafael Nadal has lashed out at the ATP

Rio de Janeiro, Feb 21 (IANS): Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal Saturday criticised the Rio Open match schedule after reaching the tournament's semi-finals with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory over Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas.

The duel finished at 3.21 a.m. Saturday after all of Friday's five centre court matches went to three sets, reports Xinhua.

"No tennis tournament should end at this time. It's tough for the players but maybe worse for the fans. It's very bad on the part of the ATP. It's not the tournament's fault. It was the ATP that didn't want to reschedule a match. If it's a Grand Slam you have a day to rest. It's seems like a terrible error to me," the 28-year-old said.

It was the second-latest end to a non-Grand Slam match, just shy of the 3.24 a.m. record set in Tokyo in 2006.

Top seed Nadal will have little time to recover before facing Italy's Fabio Fognini in Saturday's semi-final.

In other matches Friday, Spain's David Ferrer overcame Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, Austria's Andreas Haider Maurer beat Brazil's Joao Souza 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4 and Fognini outlasted Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-4, 6-7(10), 7-6 (9).

In the women's draw, Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia retired in the third set as top seeded Sara Errani of Italy progressed to the last four. Haddad Maia won the first set before abandoning the match due to cramps while trailing 3-6, 7-6(2), 3-0.

Sweden's Johanna Larsson defeated Dinah Pfizenmaier of Germany 6-4, 6-0, Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu swept aside Julie Glushko of Israel 6-1, 6-2 and Slovakia's Anna Schmiedlova beat Paraguay's Veronica Cepede Royg 6-3, 6-1.