Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jannik Sinner and Alex de Minaur booked their spots in third round of the Barcelona Open, an ATP500 event, with straight-sets wins on Wednesday.
Second-seeded Tsitsipas, a two-time runner-up in Barcelona, converted all three break points on offer to beat Argentine Pedro Cachin 6-4, 6-2. The Greek World No.5 will face Canadian Denis Shapovalov, who won 6-4, 6-3 against Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik, in the third round.
“I was able to bring good tennis out there on the court,” Tsitsipas told atptour.com.
“I kept mixing it up. I kept being very aggressive, more than I’m used to, so the whole evaluation is positive. I’m happy with how things evolved over the course of the match.
World No.8 Sinner defeated Argentine Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 40 minutes to lead the head-to-head record 3-0.
The Italian has a win-loss record of 25-6 this season which includes a title in Montpellier along with runner-up finishes in Rotterdam and Miami. He also reached the semifinals in Indian Wells and last week’s Masters event in Monte Carlo.
“I think I started very well, especially in return games,” Sinner told atptour.com after the win while adding, “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.
Fourth-seeded Sinner will face Yoshihito Nishioka next for a place in the quarterfinals. Nishioka, the 16th seed from Japan, knocked out Belgian David Goffin 6-1, 7-5 in the second round.
Eighth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur brushed aside Russia’s Alexander Shevchenko 6-0, 6-1 in just 62 minutes to set up a third-round clash with Grigor Dimitrov, who beat Ecuador’s Emilio Gomez 6-3, 6-1.
Seventh-seeded Briton Cameron Norrie defeated Russian qualifier Pavel Kotov 6-1, 6-2.
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