{"id":583511,"date":"2026-04-03T20:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583511\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T20:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:15:08","slug":"qualifier-daniel-merida-saves-3-mps-reaches-first-sf-in-bucharest-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583511\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualifier Daniel Merida saves 3 MPs, reaches first SF in Bucharest | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Match Report
\n Qualifier Merida saves 3 MPs, reaches first SF in Bucharest<\/p>\n

Navone, Van de Zandschulp advance at ATP 250<\/p>\n

April 03, 2026<\/p>\n

ATP 250 Tiriac Open<\/p>\n

Daniel Merida has saved match points against Otto Virtanen and Titouan Droguet this week.
\n By Sam Jacot<\/p>\n

Spanish qualifier Daniel Merida<\/a> is a semi-finalist on the ATP Tour after saving three match points against Titouan Droguet<\/a> in his quarter-final match at the Tiriac Open presented by UniCredit Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old arrived in Bucharest without a tour-level victory, but is now just two wins from the title at the ATP 250 event after double duty on Friday.<\/p>\n

Merida defeated World No. 43 Adrian Mannarino<\/a> 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in second-round action on Friday morning after rain disrupted Thursday\u2019s action, before he advanced to the last four following Droguet\u2019s retirement.<\/p>\n

Merida led the Frenchman 4-6, 7-6(7), 3-1 when play was stopped after saving three match points in the second-set tie-break.<\/p>\n

“I feel amazing,” Merida said in his on-court interview. “It was a super physical match and the end of the second set was crazy, saving the three match points. I think that was the point that the match changed. I am super happy to get the win. I like to fight until the last point.”<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old is up 22 spots to No. 114 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and is set to rise to a career high on Monday. Merida will next meet Fabian Marozsan<\/a> after the Hungarian beat Daniel Altmaier<\/a> 6-2, 7-6(5). Earlier this year, Merida lifted the ATP Challenger trophy in Tenerife.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cATP\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

In the top half, eighth seed Botic van de Zandschulp<\/a> moved past Damir Dzumhur<\/a> 6-3, 6-3 to advance to his first tour-level semi-final since he lost in the Winston-Salem final last August. He is the second Dutchman to reach this stage in Bucharest after Robin Haase<\/a> in 2014.<\/p>\n

The No. 62 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Van de Zandschulp is now 6-1 against players ranked below him in 2026 and will play World No. 60 Mariano Navone<\/a> in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

The Argentine Navone defeated Slovakian Alex Molcan<\/a> 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in two hours and 19 minutes. Navone is chasing his maiden ATP Tour title and is now one win away from his first final since Rio de Janeiro in February 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Match Report Qualifier Merida saves 3 MPs, reaches first SF in Bucharest Navone, Van de Zandschulp advance at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-583511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}