Barcelona Open: Tsitsipas, Sinner, Khachanov advance to pre-quarters

BARCELONA: Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the pre-quarters stage at the ongoing Barcelona Open in the men's singles competition following a win over Pedro Cachin in his round of 32 match at Pista Rafa Nadal on Wednesday.

He defeated Cachin by 6-4, 6-2. A finalist in the 2018 and 2021 editions of the tournament, the second-seed made a good start to his 2023 campaign at clay court.

"I was able to bring good tennis out there on the court," said Tsitsipas as quoted by ATP, who is now 17-5 for 2023.

"I kept mixing it up. I kept being very aggressive, more than I am used to, so the whole evaluation is positive. I am happy with how things evolved over the course of the match. It is one of those matches I was able to figure out from early on, keep up with the pace, and anything that was being thrown at me I was reacting to it very positively and being very smooth on the court," added Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas has a record of 13 wins and four losses in Barcelona, where he fell to Rafael Nadal in his previous two championship match appearances.

He will be facing Denis Shapovalov in the third round, who had defeated Jozef Kovalik 6-4, 6-3.

"It is always a motivation for me when I step out on these courts," said Tsitsipas.

"Obviously, good memories are in the back of my head. It is two finals, but still you keep the positives instead of sticking too much to what went wrong in [those finals]. I am just happy to be here... I am just enjoying the tennis and hoping 'Why not?' for the final, but still a very long way to go," added the Greek player.

A top 20 third-round clash between Cameron Norrie and Lorenzo Musetti was set up after both clinched straight-set wins.

Norrie, the seventh seed, the world number 13 in ATP Rankings, defeated qualifier Pavel Kotov 6-1, 6-2 while Musetti eliminated Jason Kubler 6-3, 6-1 to reach the round of 16 for the second time.

Meanwhile, Italy's Jannik Sinner clinched his 25th tour-level win in 2023 after racing past Diego Schwartzman on Wednesday.

The fourth-seed Italian outplayed a resilient Schwartzman in a one-hour, 40-minute match in the second round. "I think I started very well, especially in return games," said Sinner.

"I tried to stay quite aggressive, made a couple of unforced errors, but I have to remind myself that this is the first round for me. I tried to stay calm and obviously try in the best way in important moments."

"Now the main focus is to recover for tomorrow, and I restart tomorrow hopefully with better feelings than today. Diego is a very tough player to play against and I am very happy," concluded Sinner.

Sinner will be playing against Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka in pre-quarters, who had defeated David Goffin 6-1, 7-5.

In the opening match of the day, Grigor Dimitrov won by 6-3, 6-1 against the world number 120 Emilio Gomez. Alex de Minaur will be facing Dimitrov in the third round.

The Australian defeated Alexander Shevchenko 6-0, 6-1 to reach the third round for the third time in three appearances in Barcelona.

Two other seeded players, Karen Khachanov and Francisco Cerundolo advanced to the third round after wins over Nicolas Jarry (6-4, 6-4) and Francesco Passaro (6-2, 6-2). Khachanov's next match will be against 12th seed Daniel Evans or qualifier Matteo Arnaldi.

On the other hand, the 15th seed Cerundolo will play Casper Ruud in round three.