Barcelona [Spain], April 20 : Carlos Alcaraz fought off a late charge from Roberto Bautista Agut to notch his second straight-sets victory at the Barcelona Open on Thursday.
The 19-year-old Spard continued his title defence with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Bautista Agut. He will face another Spard, 10th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, in Friday's quarter-finals.
"Today was really tough. The conditions, it wasn't easy. Of course, I had to adapt my game to the wind. It was really tough. Roberto's a great player, a really solid player. I had to stay focussed all the time, be there all the time and try to take my chances," Alcaraz said as quoted by ATP.com.
Alcaraz improved to 9-1 against fellow Spards, with his only loss coming to Rafael Nadal in the Indian Wells semifinals last year. Alcaraz is attempting to become the first repeat champion at the ATP 500 since the Spsh legend reigned from 2016 to 2018. He is playing on the Nadal Centre court in Barcelona.
After falling behind early in the first set at 2-3, Alcaraz responded with six straight games to take control. He hit the shot of the match to bring up his third and final set point of the first set, sliding into a desperate backhand and floating a slice past a stunned Bautista Agut, who thought his overhead had won the point.
"It was lucky. Honestly, I didn't expect to make that shot. I just closed my eyes, [swung] the racquet. It was a lot of luck that I made that shot. Something like that is so special," Alcaraz said.
Despite being broken twice in set two, Alcaraz powered through the finish line, winning the final 11 points from 4-5, 15/15. He won in one hour and 53 minutes after breaking serve five times out of ten times, with Bautista Agut doing damage on return with three breaks in seven chances.
Elsewhere in the Round of 16 match, Stefanos Tsitsipas moved a step closer to capturing his first title at the ATP 500 event on Thursday as he overcame 14th-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 6-2 in the Round of 16 match of the ongoing Barcelona Open.
The Greek used great footwork to dictate on his forehand in a hard-hitting match. On the Barcelona clay, the second seed saved both break points he faced and hit his groundstrokes with weight.
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