体坛英语新闻：Nadal criticizes Rio Open schedule after 3am finish

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Rafael Nadal on Saturday criticized the Rio Open match schedule after reaching the tournament's semifinals with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory over Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas.

The duel finished at 3:21am on Saturday after all of Friday's five center-court matches went to three sets.

"No tennis tournament should end at this time," the 28-year-old Spaniard said. "It's tough for the players, but maybe worse for the fans."

"It's very bad on the part of the ATP. It's not the tournament's fault. It was the ATP that didn't want to reschedule a match. If it's a Grand Slam you have a day to rest. It's seems like a terrible error to me."

It was the second-latest end to a non-Grand Slam ATP match, just shy of the 3:24am record set in Tokyo in 2006.

Nadal, the clay court tournament's top seed, will have little time to recover before facing Italy's Fabio Fognini in Saturday's semifinals.

In other men's matches on Friday, Spain's David Ferrer overcame Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, Austria's Andreas Haider Maurer beat Brazil's Joao Souza 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 and Fognini outlasted Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-4, 6-7 (10), 7-6 (9).

In the women's draw, Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia retired in the third set as top-seeded Sara Errani of Italy progressed to the last four.

Haddad Maia won the first set before abandoning the match due to cramp while trailing 3-6, 7-6 (2), 3-0.

Sweden's Johanna Larsson defeated Dinah Pfizenmaier of Germany 6-4, 6-0, Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu swept aside Julie Glushko of Israel 6-1, 6-2 and Slovakia's Anna Schmiedlova beat Paraguay's Veronica Cepede Royg 6-3, 6-1.