Rain washes out quarter-finals in Buenos Aires

Rain washed out most of the play on quarter-finals day at the Buenos Aires Open with Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela and Spanish fourth seed Albert Montañes evenly poised in a deciding third set.

The opening quarter-final had Chela 6-3 4-6 3-3 against Montañes while the other three matches were all postponed to Saturday to start simultaneously at 1500 GMT. The semi-finals will be played on Saturday evening.

Chela and Montanes will finish their match after the quarter-final on Centre Court between home favourite and 2008 winner David Nalbandian, the third seed, and Spaniard Tommy Robredo, who won the tournament in Santiago 12 days ago.

Top seeded Spanish world number 13 Nicolas Almagro, winner of last week's Brazil Open, faces Argentine wild card Jose Acasuso and world number 15 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, the second seed, meets Argentine 2007 winner Juan Mónaco.

The four-tournament Latin American claycourt circuit concludes next week at the Mexican Open in Acapulco.