Pedro Martinez rebuffed a typically forceful Stan Wawrinka charge on Thursday night to book his quarter-final spot at the Tiriac Open presented by UniCredit Bank.
The second-seeded Spaniard endured a tough start to his campaign at the clay-court ATP 250 in Bucharest. The former No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings Wawrinka, who earned his first tour-level win of 2025 in the first round, made the early running with some clean baseline hitting. It was in the second set when Martinez began to turn the match around, however, particularly after he kept his nerve when two points from defeat at 4-5, 40/40.
Pedro gets It done ✅@PedroMPortero ends Wawrinka's run in the Romanian capital 4-6 7-5 6-2#TiriacOpen pic.twitter.com/s96J76ev8W
— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 3, 2025
“I think it was a really tough match from the beginning,” said Martinez. “I think he started playing better. He had one match before, so he was more in rhythm than me. I tried to stay in the match. He had a chance in the second set at 5-4. It was very close and I was lucky I could get that set. In the third set I was a little bit more fresh.”
Martinez converted six out of 10 break points he earned against Wawrinka, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to levelling the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1. The 27-year-old Spaniard will face Damir Dzumhur in the quarter-finals in Bucharest, after the Bosnian halted the run of home wild card Filip Cristian Jianu with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 triumph.
Top seed Sebastian Baez and defending champion Marton Fucsovics also sealed their quarter-final spots on Thursday in Bucharest. Baez, whose meeting with Gabriel Diallo was suspended after the second set due to rain on Wednesday evening, returned to clinch a 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-2 victory. With his Tour-leading 10th win on clay this season, the Argentine set a last-eight meeting with his countryman Francisco Comesana.
Meanwhile Fucsovics rallied past seventh seed Mariano Navone 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Hungarian will next face Christopher O’Connell, who upset fourth seed Nicolas Jarry 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(5).
