Carlos Alcaraz finishes off the struggling Roberto Bautista to advance to the quarter-finals of Barcelona

Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz defeated in the national duel Roberto Bautista (6-3 and 7-5) in the round of 16 barcelona openand will also compete in the quarter-finals against the Spaniards Alexander Davidovich, while other favorites are like Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas or Jannik the Sinner.

Defending champion Alcaraz on Barcelona’s clay court defeated the Castellón player in almost two hours of a close, colorful match that left some scintillating points and in which the Murcian had to sweat it out to beat Bautista, currently ranked 25th in the world. But the world number 2 finished strong, with a break and a last serve in white.

Bautista started to lose two break points in the first serve of the match, in the hands of Carlos Alcaraz. And Murciano, since he is at the level at which he is in Barcelona, ​​can be given a little respect. That seemed to be taken care of by Bautista, who did break the Spanish No. 1 in the fifth game.

That touch of attention helped the Murcian string together a series of flawless games, with efficient serves, precise uploads to the net and a venomous leave for the man from Castellón. Four games in a row, including two breaks, allowed the defending champion to close the first set 6-3, in almost an hour of play.

Equality that was repeated, even increased, in the second sleeve. And that Alcaraz broke Bautista’s serve and had the ball for 3:0, which he did not use. In the fourth game, the second service in the set for Alcaraz, he struggled for 3-1, but he got that advantage that brought him closer to the conclusion of the duel.

And that’s where Bautista Agut raised his game to fully enter the fray. So much so that he led 4-5 after taking two serves in a row from El Palmar, who managed to level the set at 5 games and turn the situation around break in white. With his serve, with everything to close the game, he did it again on the fast track, empty and made the first of three match points.

For his part, Alejandro Davidovich — number 10 in the tournament — defeated Finn Emil Ruusuvuori in two equal sets (6-4 and 7-5), in almost an hour and a half of play. The Málaga native had a harder time closing out the second set, but he used the second match point he had and sealed his passage to the quarterfinals. Now he is waiting for Carlos Alcaraz, who will experience his second Spanish duel.

According to Wednesday’s trend, there were no surprises on this day, already full round of 16 finals. The only tournament leader who lost to a less favored player in Barcelona was the British Cameron Norriewho was defeated by Italian Lorenzo Musetti, number 9 in the tournament, 3-6, 6-4 and 6-1.

Despite warnings about the difficulty of the game, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Canada’s Denis Shapovalov (6-3, 6-2) in 1:17 hours of play, with a more solid game on both serve and court, against Shapovalov who made 12 double faults on his serve .

A finalist in 2021 and 2018, Tsitsipas reached the quarterfinals last year and was eliminated by Carlos Alcaraz, who would eventually win the tournament. Now with this tied victory in the quarter-finals, the Australian Alex de Minaur, who did not play against the injured and retired Grigor Dimitrov, will weigh in and will come into the match fresh.

Italian Jannik Sinner, number 4 in the tournament, also passes the round against Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka (6-1, 4-6 and 6-3). In one of the rare matches so far that were decided in three sets, the 21-year-old Italian (number 8 in the ATP ranking) was seen physically touched several times.

In fact, he commented after the bout that he was well rested, but that he noticed those discomforts against Nishioka, who offered great resistance on the clay of the RCTB-1899 Rafa Nadal court. He is currently still in the competition, although the physicist could play the tennis player who was a semi-finalist in 2021 at this tournament.