BARCELONA, 19 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Norwegian Casper Ruud and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas – with an agonizing comeback – won their quarterfinal matches this Friday at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-71st Conde de Godó Trophy and we are closer to seeing the Masters 1000 final again of Monte Carlo on the Rafa Nadal Court, with victory also for the Argentine Tomás Martín Etcheverry.
Casper Ruud, third seed in the Barcelona tournament, beat the Italian Matteo Arnaldi this Friday 6-4 and 6-3 in just over an hour and a half of an even duel that began with four breaks of serve in the first five games. A madness that did not deter Ruud from his goal and did not prevent him from achieving it; get into the Godó semifinals.
It is already Ruud’s best result in Barcelona, where he barely achieved a quarterfinal in 2022 – the year in which he became world number 2 in September -. So far, he has accounted for Arnaldi, Jordan Thompson and Alexandre Muller without giving up a single set.
But his face to face with Arnaldi was not easy. In the second set, Ruud had to find his maximum when he served for the match with 5-3 in his favor, saving up to four break balls that would have given a clear turn to the sleeve and perhaps brought the duel closer to a third set, but He finally won after an hour and 34 minutes of fighting.
Ruud will meet in the semifinals with the Argentine Tomás Martín Etcheverry, current number 30 in the world and who is also having his best performance in Barcelona. The Norwegian, who was a finalist in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 after losing against Stefanos Tsitsipas, could repeat the final against the Greek.
And Tsitsipas suffered tremendously to win their quarterfinal match. In three sets he was able to beat the Greek, number 7 in the ATP, against the Argentine Facundo Díaz Acosta (number 53 in the world) after a battle that honored the historic Catalan tournament; 4-6, 6-3 and 7-6[8] in 2:32 hours of play.
A vibrant match refereed by the historic Brazilian chair umpire Carlos Bernardes, honored by the Barcelona tournament after announcing in February that this would be his last season traveling the world. He leaves after calling several Grand Slam finals and calling the best tennis players in history.
At the Díaz Acosta-Tsitsipas he had work and had to get down from his chair to put things in order and reduce the tension, especially for the great Greek tennis player. He saved the score in a histrionic, electric third set, in which Facu Díaz took a 6-5 lead after returning a break to Tsitsipas.
The Greek broke the service of the 23-year-old from Buenos Aires to go 4-5 up but the unthinkable happened; Diaz counterbreak with two double faults from the Greek on his serve and subsequent confirmation of the ‘break’ to put the Argentine 6-5 up. Change of ‘Hollywood’ script.
With that 6-5 on the Rafa Nadal Court scoreboard and Tsitsipas on serve, at 40-40 the three-time Godó finalist committed another double fault to give the Argentine a match point, but he wasted it by sending a ‘winner’ attempt ‘to the doubles hall. A subsequent shot at the net by Díaz and a cross-drive shot by the Greek took the game to sudden final death.
In the tie break, the Argentine achieved the first ‘mini-break’ to go up 4-2. A lot of pressure for Tsitsipas who failed, sending his ball into the doubles corridor. He bravely made it 5-3 and a double fault, this time from the Argentine, made it 5-4. Nerves on both sides of the court. Back on serve, Tsitsipas did not fail and regained the initiative (5-6) to have his first match point, but it was saved by Díaz, who also won his second serve (7-6).
A good serve at 195 km/h at T allowed Tsitsipas to equalize (7-7) and a volley after another great serve (7-8) gave him a second match point. Díaz Acosta pushed to the limit and resisted (8-8) with hammer blows, but a double fault gave another match point, the third, to the Greek (8-9). He served Tsitsipas to win the duel and, with a second serve, he served to the center and saw how Díaz failed the final rally to, 2:32 hours later, get his ticket to the semifinals.
Before, Etcheverry, also an Argentine, beat the British Cameron Norrie 7-6(4) and 7-6(1) to reach his first semifinal in an ATP500 tournament, and take revenge for the defeat in 2023 at the Buenos Aires tournament. , before his people, against a Norrie who was playing his third quarterfinal in Barcelona.
But the 24-year-old Argentine won 55% (16/29) of the points on Norrie’s serve and, despite having to win two sudden deaths, won in two long hours and 32 minutes. With his eleventh victory of the season, Etcheverry makes it 1-1 in the head-to-head with Norrie and continues to seek his first trophy on the ATP professional circuit.
2024-04-19 18:01:46
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