The backed-up Barcelona tournament still has to complete the third round on Friday due to rain earlier in the week. A jam-packed lineup features Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Grigor Dimitrov and Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Frances Tiafoe.
(1) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. (14) Grigor Dimitrov
Tsitsipas vs. Dimitrov was almost the Monte-Carlo final, but Dimitrov lost a tough one in the semis to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Now this matchup will happen in round three of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Friday afternoon. Tsitsipas leads the head-to-head series 2-1, including 1-0 on clay. Their only previous encounter on the red stuff came at the 2020 French Open, where the Greek got the job done 6-3, 7-6(9), 6-2.
After making a run to the semis of that event, Tsitsipas went one step farther and finished runner-up at Roland Garros in 2021. On each occasion he was stopped only by Novak Djokovic in five sets. Tsitisipas is now a two-time champion in Monte-Carlo and he extended his winning streak to six matches with a three-set victory over Ilya Ivashka on Thursday. Dimitrov scraped past Federico Coria in three sets to survive his Barcelona opener, so the Bulgarian is also in fine form. This should be a fun one, but Tsitsipas has been one of the best clay-courters in the world for several years and he should have a decisive edge.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 2
(13) Frances Tiafoe vs. (3) Felix Auger-Aliassime
Auger-Aliassime and Tiafoe will be going head-to-head for the second time in their career on Thursday. Their only previous meeting came last summer in the U.S. Open fourth round, with Auger-Aliassime prevailing 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(6), 6-4.
Although neither man is playing as well as he did in New York, the edge in current form goes to Tiafoe. The 29th-ranked American reached the third round in Indian Wells, the fourth round in Miami, and the quarterfinals in Houston. He defeated clay-court specialist Hugo Dellien 7-6(3), 6-1 on Wednesday. Auger-Aliassime had been a disastrous 1-5 in his last six matches prior to holding off Carlos Taberner 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round. It was another error-strewn performance by the ninth-ranked Canadian and does little to suggest that he is emerging from his slump.
Pick: Tiafoe in 3
WWW?
Massive effort by Carreno beating Ruud on a same day backup.
and Schwartzman also.
Yes ,but we have an impersonator I didnt write that
They can sense this is a good opportunity to win a title.
Thats about the smartest thing youve ever said Margot
Alcaraz first set stats
Aces 1
Double faults 0
First serve % 79%
Win % on 1st serve 79%
Win % on 2nd serve 100%
Tsitsipas is getting a beating from the young Alcaraz right now! Why is Tsitsipas standing way behind the baseline? He’s no Rafa, he couldn’t move as quick as Rafa on clay, so Alcaraz keeps hitting drop shots after drop shots that Tsitsipas couldn’t get to!
Alcaraz is very aggressive but I expect more from Tsitsipas than this! If Tsitsipas loses here he will be 0-3 vs Alcaraz, a guy who’s five years his junior; not doing any good to his confidence! If he couldn’t beat young Alcaraz now, he’ll have even more difficulty beating him in future!
Tsitsipas wins the second set! Finally there’s still some hope; and if he loses, at least it won’t be going down meekly.
Bad behaviour from Tsitsipas! Why couldn’t he just concentrate on the match instead of arguing with the Umpire and getting very negative? It’s not helping him at all! He’s going to lose this match, after fighting so hard to win the second set.
Congrats to Alcaraz for the win and into the top ten comes Monday.
Too bad for Tsitsipas, no Rafa here but there’s Alcaraz so Tsitsipas is not winning the Barcelona title.
It’s not easy to win titles in back to back weeks, Rafa is really special, when he could do that at MC/Barcelona for consecutive five years from 2005-2009, and then 2011-2012, 2016-2018!
It looks likely that Alcaraz will win the Barcelona title this year, when the remaining opponents don’t seem to have the game to beat him.
Alcaraz just too tough….and Tiafoe in 3.
Rublev 2-0
Alcaraz 2-0
BOS, PHI & GSW are a good addition to multis (parlays)
GL
I have BOS just beating GSW to win the title, also, for anyone that’s interested.
There is a bit of rick there with PHI and GSW in their next road game, especially leading 3-0 when they don’t have to pout everything on the line. BOS is actually stronger on the road than at home. I think the market’s got that wrong.
and BOS knows they probably cant relax with BKN. Better to not give them a sniff.