Argentinian tennis player Román Burruchaga (77th) defeated local Brandon Nakashima (33rd) in the ATP 250 Houston quarter-finals in the United States and advanced to the quarter-finals. According to the Argentine News Agency, in a match that was interrupted, the Argentine won 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 after a little over two hours of play. Thus, the 24-year-old Argentine, who is at his career-best ranking, will play in an ATP tournament quarter-final for the second time in his career. He will face the winner of the match between the Americans Learner Tien (22nd) and Nishesh Basavareddy (193rd). Argentinian Román Burruchaga continues to grow and has achieved his seventh consecutive victory, the last two at the ATP level, to reach the Houston quarter-finals, which is the best moment of his career. After winning the first set 6-4, an interruption in the match cut his good momentum against a strong rival, and he ended up losing the second set 6-2. Still, the son of 1986 World Cup champion with the Argentine national team Jorge Burruchaga, he needed only two break points to take his rival's serve in the third and fifth games and seal the victory over the highest-ranked opponent of his career. At a notable moment since he was crowned champion of the Buenos Aires Challenger last October, Burruchaga had been having some trouble adding wins in his first ATP-level matches. The Argentine had accumulated 10 defeats in 16 matches at the highest level this year and had not been able to play in the main draw of the Australian Open, but he got a great result last week to finally break into the top 100 and start to establish himself. Burruchaga was champion of the 100 Challenger in São Paulo, Brazil, which was the best tournament of his season after being runner-up of the 125 in Rosario in February. With the 100 points he obtained in the São Paulo tournament, plus a significant sum of money, 'Burru' reached the 77th position in the world ranking at a crucial moment of the season: two weeks before the confirmation of the qualifiers for the main draw of Roland Garros. Being among the top 80 players in the world and 72nd in the live ranking, Román Burruchaga is very close to avoiding the qualifying rounds of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career, something that confirms him among the best tennis players in the world, and also gives him financial relief for the planning of the rest of the year.
