Alcaraz, Tsitsipas Advance In Barcelona

We are now just one match from a dream-ish final in Barcelona as today in the quarterfinals both Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas moved on.

Alcaraz, the defending champion, beat his second straight countryman in No. 10 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-6(7-5), 6-4.

Davidovich hung with the teen in a tight first as the two traded breaks until Alcaraz seized control in the breaker.

He played really well, great shots. Probably not only the one hot shot. He made a lot of them, probably more than me. It was a really fun match,” Alcaraz stated.

Alcaraz finally took the heart out of his foe with a 16-point break game to go up 3-1 in the second.

Alcaraz improves to 21-2 this season and he’ll now face Dan Evans tomorrow in the semifinals. Evans won a tester over 15th-seeded Francisco Cerundolo 2-6, 7-5, 6-3. Alcaraz won their only meeting in the 2021 Vienna.

Tsitsipas eliminated No. 8 seed Alex De Minaur 6-4, 6-2. The Greek faced just one break point in the win as he improves to 9-0 against De Minaur.

“I would say that my shots were heavy,” Tsitsipas said to the ATP. “I was able to control most of them and navigate him around the court on both my forehand and backhand. My patience was there. I knew that was the foundation of the match.

“I am satisfied with my return game, especially towards the end. I found myself in a very good position to press early on and look for the forehand and use my backhand when necessary as well.”

Tsitsipas will now face Lorenzo Musetti who got a walkover from a sick Jannik Sinner.

“Sad to have to withdraw from my match today in Barcelona. I’ve been feeling unwell for a few days now. Today the sickness got worse and I’m not able to play. I’ll take some time to rest and recover. Thanks for all your support & good luck to Lorenzo for the rest of the event,” Sinner posted on twitter.

Tsitsipas is ahead of Musetti 3-0 in their tour-level encounters winning at the French Open last year.

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