The fifth day of the 2024 Argentina Open began with Argentine Tomás Etcheverry (27th ATP singles ranked) beating Colombian Daniel Galán (80th) 6-3, 6-0 in one hour and 23 minutes of play. 

The La Plata native stopped Galán’s streak against Argentines — he beat Francisco Comesaña in the qualifiers and Diego Schwartzman in the First Round — and secured his spot in the quarterfinals, where he will face the winner of the duel between third-seed Chilean Nicolás Jarry and three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka on Friday.

Etcheverry broke Galán’s serve early in the first set, but the Colombian managed to recover and tie the game 3-3. The Argentine, who’s currently enjoying his best-ever ranking, was able to move around the 1.91-meter Galán with a wider array of shots to close down the set with another break for 6-3.

In the second, the Argentine took control of the match early on and never let go as Galán lost accuracy on his shots and had his serve broken three times in a row for the deciding 6-0.

“It was a great game for me,” said Etcheverry after the game. “I got back to the level I was aiming for. It wasn’t an easy couple of weeks, losing in [the Davis Cup series in] Rosario affected me […] and it wasn’t easy to recover mentally because I wasn’t able to play my best.”

“Playing in Buenos Aires with the fans and where I grew up, things are back on track and I’m feeling my best, and the thing with tennis is one day you struggle and the next day you’re good, so you always have to keep your head high.”