Barcelona, April 19 (EFE).- The Norwegian Casper Ruud and the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman made placid debuts on Tuesday at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-Conde de Godó Trophy. Quite the opposite of Briton Cameron Norrie, another top seed and who took 2 hours and 37 minutes on the track to qualify for the second round.
Ruud, seventh racket of the ATP and second favorite in Barcelona, did not experience excessive shocks against the American Brandon Nakashima (6-3 and 6-2).
Schwartzman, 15th in the world rankings and sixth seed, had no undue problems on his clay debut for Barcelona, who beat fellow American Mackenzie McDonald by a 6-2 brace.
In cambio, Norrie, 10ª raqueta del circuito y cuarto cabeza de serie del torneo, tuvo que remontar (5-7, 6-4 y 6-4) ante el bielorruso procedente de la fase previa Egor Gerasimov, en el partido más largo de the day.
This Wednesday will be the turn of two of the big favorites to take over from the Spaniard Rafa Nadal in the tournament list: the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, fifth seed, who will start against the Korean Soonwoo Kwon, and the Greek Stepanos Tsitsipas (1 ), who will also face Belarusian Ilya Ivashka.
This will be the first time that Alcaraz, number 11 in the ATP rankings, faces Kwon (71). On the other hand, Tsitsipas, fifth in the racket world and who arrives in Barcelona as champion of Monte Carlo for the second consecutive time, has already faced Ivashka, 44 years old at ATP, this year on the covered court of Rotterdam , with victory. for the Hellenic, by 6-4 and 6-1, in the round of 16.
Ilya Ivashka won the prize to challenge the No. 1 seed in Godó after beating Pedro Martínez 6-4, 7-6 today, one of four Spaniards who were eliminated on Matchday 2.
And it is that they also said goodbye to the Barcelona open at the first change: Pablo Andújar (4-6 and 3-6 against the Frenchman Ugo Humbert); Feliciano López (0-6 and 1-6 against Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori); and Roberto Carballés (4-6 and 6-7 against South African Lloyd Harris).
The only one who qualified for the second round is Carlos Taberner, who played in the big surprise this Tuesday by beating (6-3 and 6-0), the American Sebastian Korda, number 37 in the world ranking and executioner of Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in Monte-Carlo.
The Valencian tennis player, 94 in the ATP ranking and who entered the big draw for Godó in the preliminary phase, will face this Wednesday, on the central court of RCT Barcelona, the ninth racket in the world and the third seed in the tournament, the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime.
The Spaniard Pablo Carreño, eighth seed, will also make his debut against his compatriot Bernabé Zapata, who came from the previous phase and who beat Tommy Robredo on Monday, in what was the last game of the 2004 champion as a professional.
Precisely, the two players have already met in Barcelona in the Round of 16 last year. Then Carreño, 19th ATP player, beat Zapata (119), 6-3, 6-4.
Gines Munoz
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