The Greek went further to defeat the combative Pedro Cachín (4-6 and 2-6)

BARCELONA, April 19 (EUROPEAN PRESS) –

Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Argentinian Pedro Cachín (6-4 and 6-2) this Wednesday in his debut at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell-70 Conde de Godó Trophy, in a match of second round, while other top seeds such as Italy’s Jannik Sinner, Britain’s Cameron Norrie and Karen Khachanov also started their run strong in the Barcelona tournament.

It was a day of a few surprises. All the seeded teams ended their second round matches with victory and, moreover, in straight sets. The big favorite among them, the now world number 5 Tsitsipas, beat Cachín despite the resistance of the Argentinian in a first set (6-4) even.

“I had the persistence to attack constantly, to be aggressive and to go quickly to get the ball. I had to be precise, I think I played well,” the Greek said in a conference of press after the game. The match, however, left big points and some, like a pass from behind between the legs, from Cachín. However, in the second set, Tsitsipas went further and closed the match in 1:18.

The Greek will face Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the third round, an “aggressive player who serves well and can play anywhere on the court”. Shapovalov beat Slovak Jozef Kovalik 6-4, 6-3 the previous Wednesday.

In the lower zone of the table, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (against Ecuadorian Emilio Gómez 6-3, 6-1) and Australian Alex de Minaur (beaten Alexander Shevchenko 6-0, 6-1) also won . the knockout stages.

Also in this third round (eighth) will face, in one of the most attractive duels, the Italian and fourth seed of the tournament Jannik Sinner and the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka. While Sinner ended the career of the one who was semi-finalist last year, the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, the Japanese eliminated the Belgian veteran David Goffin (6-1 and 7-5).

Sinner, world number 8, started well in Barcelona. In 2021 he reached the semi-finals, in which he lost to Tsitsipas, and now he hopes to improve on that performance. So far he has shown good tennis against Schartzman, who is an expert and has come to Barcelona grown up ready to repeat his feat from last year.

Also in contention is sixth seed Karen Khachanov after beating Chilean Nicolás Jarry with a 6-4 brace. In the third round, he will face Britain’s Daniel Evans, who beat Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-3. Meanwhile, Briton Cameron Norrie beat Pavel Kotov (6-1 and 6-2) and the number 7 of the tournament will face Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who beat Australian Jason Kubler (3-6 and 1-6 ).