Rafael Nadal must recover from a late night in the Rio Open
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Rafael Nadal must bounce back from a late night if he's going to make the final of the Rio Open.
Top-seeded Nadal played until 3:18 a.m. on Saturday before beating No. 6-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 4-6, 7-5, 6-0. The match almost set a record. The ATP said one non-Grand Slam match ended slightly later -- 3:24 a.m. in Tokyo in 2006.
Nadal will have only about 16 hours to recover before facing No. 4 Fabio Fognini of Italy in the semifinals.
In the women's half of the ATP-WTA event, No. 6 Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia and No. 1 Sara Errani are into Sunday's final.
Schmiedlova defeated No. 2 Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, and Errani won over No. 5 Johanna Larsson of Sweden 7-5, 6-3.
Errani will be looking for her eighth WTA singles titles, and Schmiedlova will be after her first.
In the other men's semi, David Ferrer plays Andreas Haider-Maurer.
