Arthur Fils Stuns in Barcelona, Tsitsipas and Ruud Also Advance

Son hits hard

It’s a victory that will do him the greatest good. For his morale, his confidence and especially the rest of the season. Solid, Arthur Fils qualified for the quarter-finals of the Barcelona tournament by eliminating Alex De Minaur, seeded n°4, in straight sets (7-5, 6-2).

In the quarter-final, the 19-year-old Frenchman will face Serbian Dusan Lajovic (59th) who defeated Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich (7-6 (12/10), 3-6, 6-1). Facing an opponent at the gates of the Top 10 and winner of Rafael Nadal in the previous round, Arthur Fils won with great authority despite his young age, winning the first set 7-5, after being led 5-3.

In the second set, the Frenchman led 5-1, before being served in the 7th game, then winning 6-2 straight away on De Minaur’s serve, on his third match point.

Ruud with his hand

He made the match easy. If Casper Ruud had lost the last match which pitted him against Jordan Thompson, 33rd in the world, in the final in Los Cabos on hard court, there was no photo on his favorite surface, clay. Thursday, the Norwegian had no trouble defeating the Australian in two straight sets (6-1, 6-4) and 1h12 of play in the round of 16. To reach the last of the Catalan ATP 500 tournament, he will face Matteo Arnaldi on Friday who crushed the Argentinian Marco Trungelliti (6-3, 6-0) earlier in the day.

By making a great start, Ruud left his mark on the game: he simply won the first five games, making his opponent run from one end of the court to the other thanks to his forehand. Very aggressive, he managed his efforts more in the second set against Thompson who showed a nice touch on the ball on several occasions. But the break came at 6-1, 3-3 for the Norwegian who never let go of his advantage, in a very clean match which saw him commit only 8 unforced errors.

Casper Ruud

Credit: Getty Images

Tsitsipas continues

Stefanos Tsitsipas, 7th player in the world, also qualified for the quarter-finals by beating Spaniard Roberto Carballes (72nd) 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday. In the next round the 25-year-old Greek, a clay court specialist, will face the Argentinian Facundo Diaz (53rd), who earlier defeated the Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, 39th in the world, in three sets (3- 6, 6-3, 6-1).

Tsitsipas took his opponent’s serve twice, the last in the winning game at 7-5, and conceded one during the first set. He achieved another decisive break in the sixth game of the second set. The Athenian thus continues his momentum after his victory on Sunday in the final of the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo against the Norwegian Casper Ruud (6th), who also qualified for the quarter-finals on Thursday by winning 6-1, 6 -4 Australian Jordan Thompson (33rd).

A class apart: how Tsitsipas defeated Ruud

2024-04-18 18:41:00
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