Conde de Godó semi-finals determined – Game Time

Norwegian tennis player Casper Ruud and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, this time through a painful comeback, won their quarter-final matches this Friday. final of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-71st Conde de Godó Trophy and in the next round they will play respectively against Argentine Tomas Martin Echeverri and Serbian Dusan Lajovic.

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So, Ruud and Tsitsipas have saved the opportunity for Rafa Nadal’s court to re-edit their recent Monte Carlo Masters 1000 final.. The Norwegian, who finished third in the Barcelona tournament, beat Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-3 in just an hour and a half of an evenly matched contest that began with four breaks of serve in the first five games.

It was madness that did not deter Ruud from his goal or prevent him from achieving it; make it to the Godot semi-finals. This is already his best result in Barcelona, ​​where he barely reached the quarter-finals in 2022, the year he became world number two in September. At the moment, he has not lost a single set against Arnaldi, Jordan Thompson and Alexander Muller.

But coming face to face with Arnaldi was not easy. Ruud had to find his best in the second set as he served for the match 5-3 in his favour, saving up to four break balls that would have given a clear turn in the hole and possibly taken the contest into third. set, but in the end he won after an hour and 34 minutes of fighting.

Earlier, Thomas Echeverry beat Briton Cameron Norrie with a score of 7-6 (4) and 7-6 (1). reaching his first semi-final at an ATP 500 tournament. He took revenge for his defeat in 2023 at the Buenos Aires tournament in front of his people against Norrie, who was playing his third quarter-final in Barcelona.

But the 24-year-old Argentine won 55% (16/29) of Norrie’s service points and, despite having to win two sudden deaths, won in two long hours and 32 minutes. With his eleventh win of the season, Echeverri makes it 1-1 head-to-head with Norrie and continues his quest for his first professional ATP trophy. Ruud will now be the obstacle in the semi-finals for Echeverri, the current world number 30 and who is also enjoying his best results in Barcelona.

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TRIBUTE TO BERNARDES AND STOMACH AT TRIAL

On the other side of the picture. Tsitsipas suffered heavily to secure a quarter-final victory over fellow Argentine Facundo Diaz Acosta, the world No. 53. After three sets, the Greek, the ATP tournament number seven, smiled after a fight that honored the historic Catalan tournament with a score of 4-6, 6-3 and 7-6(8) over 2:32 hours of extremely intense play. and various rallies.

A highlight that saw historic Brazilian Carlos Bernardes officiate was awarded the Barcelona tournament after announcing in February that this would be his last season touring the circuit. He leaves after refereeing several Grand Slam finals and refereeing the best tennis players in history.

In Diaz Acosta’s match against Tsitsipas, he had to work hard and had to get out of his chair to restore order and reduce the tension, especially from the Greek. He saved the match in a theatrical, electric third set that saw Diaz Acosta lead 6-5 on a break return.

The Greek broke the 23-year-old from Buenos Aires’ serve to take a 4-5 lead, but the unthinkable happened; counterbreak from Diaz with two double faults from Tsitsipas on his serve and subsequent confirmation of the “break”, as a result of which his opponent increased the score 6-5 according to the “Hollywood” scenario.

With Rafa Nadal at 6-5 on the scoreboard and Tsitsipas on serve at 40-40, three-time finalist Godot made another double fault, giving the Argentine match point, but he wasted it by sending in the ‘winning’ try. ‘to the doubles room. Diaz’s follow-up shot on goal and the Greek’s cross-pass shot brought the game to sudden death.

In the tiebreaker, the Argentine made the first mini-break and took a 4-2 lead. A lot of pressure on Tsitsipas, who failed to send the ball into the double lineout. Courageously he made it 5-3 and a double fault, this time from the Argentine, made it 5-4. Nerves on both sides of the court. Returning to serve, Tsitsipas made no mistake and regained the lead (5-6) to get his first match point, but it was saved by Diaz, who also won his second serve (7-6).

A 195 km/h serve on the T allowed Tsitsipas to level the score at 7-7, and a volley after another superb serve (7-8) gave him his second match point. Diaz Acosta pushed things to the limit and fought back (8-8) with hammer blows, but a double fault brought the Greek another winning ball, the third (8-9). From the second serve, Tsitsipas sent the ball to the center, and Diaz missed the final break.

2:32 hours later, the new Monte Carlo champion certified his ticket to the semi-finals.. There he would meet Lajovic, the executioner of young Frenchman Arthur Fils 6-4, 3-6 and 6-2 in a match that lasted 2:07.