Barcelona PTA Tennis Tournament

The next tournament on clay in Barcelona starts tomorrow and at this stage what is available is the top 16 seedings who has a bye  in Round 1 and will start playing only on Wednesday.  The seedings are the following:-

1     Rafa Nadal

2     Stefanos Tsitsipas

3     Andrey Rublev

4     Diego Schwartzman

5     Roberto Bautista-Agut

6     Pablo Carrero-Busta

7     Denis Shapovalov

8     David Goffin

9     Fabio Fognini

10   Felix Augur-Aliassime

11   Jannak Sinner

12   Karen Khachanov

13   Cristian Garin

14   Alex de Minaur

15   Casper Ruud

16   Daniel Evans 

After Round 1 the above  will be broken down into the Top Half of the draw and the Bottom Half of the Draw. 

Casper Ruud is  out with an injury and he was replaced by Gaio - who was a lucky looser and in the seedings by the  number 17 seeded player - Adrian Mannarino,    That implies that Rublev will play Gaio in Round 2 and  possibly Mannarino (if he wins in Round 2) in Round 3..         

Round 2

Upper half of the Draw

R  Nadal  (1)                             vs        I  Ivaska

C Garin  (13)                             vs       K Nishikori

K Khachanov  (12)                    vs     C  Norrie 

D Goffin  (8)                             vs      P  Herbert

D Schwartzman (4)                  vs       F  Tiafoe

D Evans  (16)                           vs        C  Moutet

F Fognini (9)                            vs        B  Zapata-Miralles

P Carrero-Busta (6)                  vs        J  Thompson

This is a weird draw  with four of the top ten players in the upper half of the draw = seeded 4,6,8 and 9  - who  struggled to win matches this year - so it seems to be an effort to  get  Nadal into the final without  him to face any serious challenges in the process.  

On the other hand the bottom half of the draw include very competitive players like Bautista-Agut , Sinner, Rublev, Shapavalov and Tsitsipas., with the latter favourted to go through to the final.            

Bottom Half of the Draw 

R Bautista-Agut  (5)           vs         P  Andujar-Alba 

J Sinner  (11)                      vs          E  Gerasimov

A Mannarino  (17)              vs          A   Ramos-Vinolas

A Rublev  (3)                      vs          F  Gaio

D  Shapavalov (7)              vs           J  Chardy

F  Augur-Aliassime  (10)   vs           L Musetti

A De Minaur  (14)             vs            A  Bublik

S Tsitsipas   (2)                   vs            J Munar    

Some of the second  round matches will be played today  (Tuesday)  but Nadal, Tsisipas and Rublev will play theirs tomorrow.     Those played today involve Goffin, Bautista-Agut,  Shapavalov, Sinner and Khachanov.         

A Ramos-Vinolas beat H Rune  - 17 year-old youngster from Denmark  -  in three sets taking 3 hours 10 minutes.  Look out for that kid in future.      

All; Round  1 matches, as well as 1 Round 2 match  have  now been completed and  another 4 Round 2  will be completed  today  - with the other 11 Round 2 matches to be played  tomorrow. 

I highlighted the players that should win - the rest are impossble to highlight.       

Third Round

Top Half of the Draw

Rafael  Nadal  (1)                             vs         Kei Nishikori

Diego Schwartzman  (4)                 va         Corentin Moutet               

David  Goffin   (8)                            vs         Cameron  Norrie

Pablo Carrero-Busta (6)                    vs         Bernabe Zapata Miralles

Bottom  Half of the Draw

Roberto  Bautista-Agut  (5)              vs           Jannik  Sinner  (11)

Albert  Ramos-Vinolas                     vs           Andrey Rublev (3)

Dennis Shapovalov  (7)                    vs           Felix Augur-Aliassime  (10)

Stefanos Tsitsipas  (2)                      vs            Alex de Minaur (14)

I see that Sinner is the marrow bookmakers favorite to beat Bautista-Agut,     

Rublev was totally disinterested  and in bad humor during and although he won the match he was  nor even remotely interested in playing.   I have never seen him playing as badly  as he did today,    Is likely to fail is Round  3-  even the commentator said he was surprised by Rublev accepting the   invitation to play in Barcelona.   He has played every week since the beginning of January and should have taken a break,     Rublev was perfectly honest  aaabout his own deficiencies when he spoke about the second-hand win at the interview after the match.  

As bad as Rublev was this morning - so disinterested  was  Nadal this afternoon.   For the first time since 2008 Nadal lost a first set in clay court match and  he had to win in a three set mat ch    

Quarterfinals

Top Half of  the draw

Rafael  Nadal  (1)                            vs       Cameron Norrie       

Diego Schwartzman  (4)                vs         Pablo Carrero-Busta  (6)

Nadal was also not really good against the unseeded Nishikori  and the match was played over 3 sets with him losing the second set  6-2,   In round 2 he also  had to play  3 sets  as well against a qualifier,    I give him a winning chance against Norrie - another unseeded player  - I not think he looks like a tournament winner though.      

Bottom Half of the Draw

Andrey Rublev  (3)                        vs          Jannik  Sinner (11)

Stefanos Tsitsipas  (2)                vs          Felix  Augur-Aliassime  (10) 

Rublev was again sub-stand ard and instead of winning easily he made very heavy weather of the match and made a  large number pf unenforced errors.  He still won the game - but against stronger  players he would have been disgraced,   If that happens again tomorrow  he will definitely lose when playing Sinner.   He is taking a week off next week and will have a decent rest before the French Open.  

Shapovalov was injured and even though he  tried - he was easily  defeated.     

Semi Finals 

Top half of the Draw

Rafael Nadal  (1)               vs       Pablo Carrero-Busta (6)

Bottom Half of the Draw

Stefanos Tsitsipas  (2)       vs        Jannik Sinner (11)

I thought that Rublev were not up to standard and Sinner in an interview he said that Rublev seems to be tired after the many matches he played in without a break.    

Final

Rafael Nadal  (1)      vs       Stefanos  Tsitsipas  (2)

Nadal had an easy path to the final and  he has to my mind o chancer of beating Tsitsipas .