Barcelona Open: Tsitsipas back into the semi-finals

Finalist in Barcelona in 2018 and 2021, beaten both times by Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas keeps his title dream alive this week. “It’s always a motivation for me when I step out on these courts,” the Australian Open finalist said. “Obviously, good memories are in the back of my head. It’s two finals, but still you keep the positives instead of sticking too much to what went wrong

The second seed indeed dispatched Australian Alex De Minaur, the No 8 seed, in two straight sets 6(-4, 6-2) on Friday. “I was able to bring good tennis out there on the court”, says a very satisfied Tsitsipas. “I kept mixing it up. I kept being very aggressive, more than I’m used to, so the whole evaluation is positive. It’s 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.”

Tsitsipas, ranked No 5, will now face No 9 seed Lorenzo Musetti. The Australian Open has an 8-0 record against his Australian rival on the Tour, proving once again that the weight of his forehand plays a bit like kryptonite against De Minaur’s counterpunching game. His serve helped him a lot today also, and he faced not a single break point. Tsitsipas, ranked No 5, will now face No 9 seed Lorenzo Musetti and has a good opportunity this week to forget the loss of his Monte-Carlo title last week.

Ahead of his victory, the Greek beat Argentinian Pedro Cachin (6-4, 6-2) and Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the No 14 seed (6-3, 6-2).

De Minaur, ranked No 19, won against Russian Alexander Shevchenko (6-0, 6-1) and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 11 seed (W/O) in the previous rounds of the Barcelona tournament.

Barcelona ATP500, other last eight results (Real Club de Tenis Barcelona, clay, EUR 2.722.480, most recent results first):

• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Daniel Evans
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Lorenzo Musetti vs. Jannik Sinner