Staff Reporter.
Top-seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz defeated Serbia’s Laslo Djere 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in Spain.
Alcaraz, who won the tournament in 2022 and 2023, needed only 71 minutes to finish Djere and sets up a meeting with No. 5 seed Alex De Minaur of Australia, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Britain’s Jacob Fearnley.
Alcaraz won the first five games and produced eight unanswered winners in a dominant first set.
The four-time Grand Slam winner suffered a blip in the second, falling 4-2 behind, before securing the final four games to triumph.
“After going 4-2 down in the second, I played a bit more like what my level is,” said Alcaraz.
“I am very happy that I could step up my level, and seem more like my best and I want to continue.”
The 21-year-old will play fifth seed Alex de Minaur in the last eight on Friday after the Australian thrashed Britain’s Jacob Fearnley.
Unseeded Fearnley beat Spain’s Roberto Carballes on Monday for his first ATP Tour win on clay, but was defeated 6-1 6-2 by De Minaur.
Elsewhere, Russian fourth seed Andrey Rublev lost 7-5 6-4 to unseeded Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Fokina will face unseeded Russian Karen Khachanov in the quarter-finals after he defeated Spain’s Jaume Munar 7-5 6-4.