(Barcelona) It wasn’t easy, but Casper Ruud earned his spot in the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Tennis Open by beating American Ben Shelton 6-2, 7-6 (1 ), Tuesday.
The Norwegian ended the second-round duel after 70 minutes, despite the American overcoming a 3-5 deficit in the second set to force a tiebreaker. This victory of the third player in the world on Catalan clay allowed him to level his career record at 1-1 against the 20-year-old left-handed tennis player.
Ruud quickly took control of the match by exploiting his excellent first serve and powerful forehand, jostling Shelton relentlessly.
The 24-year-old then used his experience – he’s been a runner-up in nine clay-court tournaments so far in his career – to stem the rise of the 37e world racket in the second set. Ruud thus erased four of the five break points offered to his opponent, who was playing only a fifth career game on this playing surface.
Ruud will face in the quarter-finals the winner of the duel between the 15e seeded Francisco Cerundolo and Italy’s Francesco Passaro. The Norwegian, who also advanced to this stage of the competition at Barcelona last year, will be hoping to build on his momentum after winning the title at Estoril earlier this month.
In addition, Diego Schwartzman easily took the measure of China’s Wu Yibing 6-2, 6-2. The Argentinian will now cross swords with the fourth seed, the Italian Jannik Sinner.
Among the other players who triumphed on Tuesday were Argentinian Pedro Cachin, Colombian Emilio Gomez, Italian Matteo Arnaldi and Russian Alexander Shevchenko.
Tournament favorite Carlos Alcaraz of Spain will make his debut later today against Portugal’s Nuno Borges, 79e player in the world. American Frances Tiafoe (no 5) and Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (no 13) will also be in action.
As for the Ontarian Denis Shapovalov, he should begin his course in Barcelona on Wednesday, against the Slovak Jozef Kovalik.