No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz will attempt to defend his title Sunday at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in Spain.
The 19-year-old Spaniard eased to a 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 12 seed Daniel Evans of Great Britain in Saturday’s semifinals.
His opponent for the clay-court ATP 500 championship is No. 2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who outlasted No. 9 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in 2 hours and 29 minutes.
Alcaraz is attempting to become the event’s first repeat champion since countryman Rafael Nadal won three straight from 2016-18.
BMW Open
Top seed Holger Rune of Denmark overwhelmed Australia’s Christopher O’Connell 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals in Munich, Germany.
The 19-year-old defending champion saved all break points he faced and won 81 percent of the points (35 of 43) on his first serve. Rune broke O’Connell’s serve three times in four chances.
Rune’s opponent in Sunday’s final is No. 4 seed Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands, a rematch of the 2022 championship match when the latter retired with a chest injury in the first set.
On Saturday, van de Zandschulp defeated No. 2 seed Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6 (2) in 1 hour and 49 minutes.
Srpska Open
No. 2 seed Andrey Rublev continued his torrid play with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Slovakia’s Alex Molcan in the semifinals in Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The red-hot Russian, coming off a title last week at Monte Carlo, has not lost a set this week. Rublev is looking to join 2023 multi-time winners Novak Djokovic, Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev.
Standing in the way is unseeded Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, who followed his quarterfinal upset of Djokovic with a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 win against countryman Miomir Kecmanovic, the No. 4 seed.
–Field Level Media
