Canas through to Barca final

Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 28 April 2007 / Leave a Comment

Guillermo Canas won the battle of the Argentinian stars as he moved into the final of the Barcelona Open with a three-set victory over Agustin Calleri.

The 29-year-old, who moved into the last four without hitting a ball when Nikolay Davydenko pulled out with a wrist injury, took the first set on a tie-break and led by a break in the second but his fellow South American dug deep to hit back and send the set into another breaker.

Calleri duly took it to force a decider but Canas was too good in the third and ran out a 7-6 6-7 6-2 winner and he will face the winner of the Rafael Nadal - David Ferrer clash.

The final-set score did not reflect the closeness of the encounter with the match statistics almost identical for the baseline specialists.

Canas now has the problem of how to deal with Nadal should the Spaniard, as expected, beat his compatriot and extend his unbeaten run on clay to 71 matches.

Nadal is the 1.2 favourite to claim the title with Ferrer trading at 17.5 and Canas on offer at 6.2.

Canas can be backed at 23 to win the French Open with Ferrer on offer at 70 and Calleri not fancied at 360.