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Pablo Carreno Busta bests double partner to reach BNP Paribas Open semifinals

Pablo Carreno Busta celebrates match point against Pablo Cuevas in a PNB Paribas quarterfinal match at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 16.
Pablo Carreno Busta celebrates match point against Pablo Cuevas in a PNB Paribas quarterfinal match at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 16.
(Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
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Just a few weeks ago, Pablo Carreno Busta joined Pablo Cuevas on the same side of the court to win the doubles title at a tournament in Rio de Janeiro. Instead of joining him again at the BNP Paribas Open, Carreno beat him Thursday in a tight quarterfinal match that will lift his world ranking into the top 20.

Carreno Busta, a Spaniard whose comfort extends beyond the clay courts favored by many of his compatriots, saved two match points to defeat Uruguay’s Cuevas, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (4) at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and earn his first trip to the semifinals of this event. Carreno Busta, seeded No. 21 here, will face No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, who overcame a strong challenge from Dominic Thiem of Austria to win the day’s final match, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (2).

Carreno Busta’s victory Thursday was especially significant for him because it also avenged his loss to Cuevas in the singles semifinals at Sao Paulo, Brazil, the last tournament Carreno Busta played before coming here.

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“I know how he plays. He knows how I play. We know a lot,” said Carreno Busta, who stands a lanky 6 feet 2 and 165 pounds. “So it was a tough match, you know. Always with Cuevas, with Pablo, I need to be very focused on my game, very aggressive, because his second serve or his kick, you know, the ball bounces a lot. So I need to be aggressive and I need to dominate the points, because he’s really dangerous with his forehand.”

Carreno Busta, 25, said his goal beginning this year was to be in the top 20 in the rankings. He was 23 before this tournament and that will only improve.

“But I need to continue working. I need to work hard, because it’s not easy to be here. And I know that if I stop now, I will roll back again. So I’m very happy, of course, and we are making a good job, but I will need to continue like this.”

The biggest difference from previous years, he said, was changing the support team around him and the mental reinforcement those team members are giving him.

“We work so hard about to be focused all the time, to be very aggressive, to try to dominate all the points,” he said. “And, you know, it’s not easy, of course, but they helped me a lot all the time during this year and a half, working with them. And I think we are very comfortable, both with me and me with them. So we’ll continue, and I hope that things will continue like this.”

This was the second straight match in which Wawrinka came back off the ropes. He had been pushed in his fourth-round match against Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka and was broken on his serve in that match for the first time in this tournament. Thiem kept Wawrinka pinned back with powerful groundstrokes but Waw-rinka took control in the tiebreaker.

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“I’m happy to win again in a tiebreaker in the third set,” he said during an on-court post-match interview. “The player who was more aggressive in the end won.”

Friday’s Featured Matches

STADIUM 1

Men

No. 9 Roger Federer (Switzerland) vs. No. 15 Nick Kyrgios (Australia)

No. 17 Jack Sock (U.S.) vs. No. 4 Kei Nishikori (Japan)

Women

No. 28 Kristina Mladenovic (France) vs. No. 14 Elena Vesnina (Russia).

No. 3 Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) vs. No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia)

helene.elliott@latimes.com

Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter @helenenothelen

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