BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas won to advance to the Barcelona Open semifinals on Friday, keeping them on course to meet in a second straight final.
Ruud beat Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-3 to notch his season-leading 27th win. The sixth-ranked Norwegian has two more wins than Jannik Sinner.
Tsitsipas saved two match points to rally past Facundo Díaz 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8).
Tsitispas struggled with his serve and double-faulted seven times. One of them cost him a break while the Greek player was trying to serve out the match up 5-4 in the third set. He then had to save a match point while serving again before facing the brink again in the tiebreaker.
"I feel like having so many matches under my belt and faced situations like this helps for sure," Tsitsipas said. "I knew anything was possible at any given time."
The seventh-ranked Tsitsipas easily defeated Ruud to claim his third title at Monte Carlo last weekend.