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Patna : Top seed and 11-time champion Rafael Nadal, 34, Spain, 2nd seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, 22, Greece, 3rd seed Andrey Rublev, 23, Russia, and 4th seed Diego Schwartzman, 28, Argentina, reached the quarter-finals of Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, an ATP 500 clay court event, at Barcelona, Spain, on April 22, 2021. But, 5th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, 33,spain, crashed out of the event losing his 3rd round third round match to 11th Jannik Sinner, 19, Italy.
World No 3 Nada too took 2hrs and 19 minutes to beat World No 39 Kei Nishikori, 31, Japan, in three-sets. Nadal beat Nishikori 6-0, 2-6, 6-2 to reach QFs of the event. The Spainiard, who is still searching for his best clay court form, won 5 break points during the match to 2 by the Japanese. He also won 7 games in a row in the match to 3 by Nishikori.
Nadal, in all, won 87 points to 74 points by the Japanese. Both the players served 2 Aces each in the match.Nadal was in devastating form in the first set and won it 6-0 winning 3 break points. But, lost concentration in the second set as Nishikori broke his service twice to win it 6-2. Nadal, however, returned the fire in the third set winning it 6-2.
World No 5 Tsitsipas beat 14th seed Alex de Minaur, 22, Australia, in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 in third round in 1hr 24 minutes. The greek won 3 break points during the match to 1 by the Australian. Tsitsipas won 3 games in a row in the match to 2 by World No 25 Minaur.Tsitsipas, in all, 66 points during the match to 56 by the Australian.
World No 7 Rublev beat World N0 46 Albert Ramos Vinolas, 33, Spain, in three-sets 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in 3rd round. Rublev won 4 break points during the match to 2 by the Spainiard. Both the players won 3 games each in a row in the match. Both of them also fired 4 Aces each during the match. The Russian, in all, won 106 points to 102 by Vinolas.
World No 9 Schwartzman beat World No 75 Corentin Moutet, 22, France, 6-4, 6-2 in 3rd round . Scheartzman won 5 break points during the match to 2 by the Frenchman. He won 4 games in a row during the match to 2 by Moutet. Scheartzman, in all, won 62 points during the match to 49 by Moutet.
World No 19 Sinner stunned 5th seed Agut, the World No 11, 7-6, 6-2 in 3rd round. Sinner fired 6 Aces in the match to 1 by the Spainiard. The Italian won 4 break points during the match to 2 by the Spainiard. Sinner won 3 games in a row in the match to 2 by Agut.
World No 20 & 10th Seed Felix Auger Aliassime, 20, Canada, beat 7th seed Denis Shapovalov, 22, Canada, 6-2, 6-3 in 3rd round winning 4 games in a row to enter the QFs of the event. Aliassime also won 4 break points during the match to 1 by Shapovalov, the World No 14.