Carlos Alcaraz keeps cruising in a bid to defend his title at the 2023 Barcelona Open as he overcame Roberto Bautista Agut.
The two Spaniards met already at the last year's Indian Wells and back then, the younger of the two emerged victorious in two sets. In front of the home crowd in Barcelona, at the Pista Rafa Nadal, Alcaraz wanted to beat the fellow Spaniard again.
Recently, Alcaraz's coach Juan Carlos Ferrero said that he puts too much effort into points which sometimes seems to be lost and the teenager continued to show his incredible passion for the sport also during the third-round match in Barcelona.
The match was a difficult one for the world no. 2 as Bautista Agut proved to be a real challenge. The 35-year-old got the first break in the match, but he couldn't keep his advantage. Alcaraz broke back and he even added one more break in the longest game of the match to win the first set 6-3.
Alcaraz started well in the second set as he marched into a 2-0 lead and could add another break to make it 3-0. But Bautista Agut fought back once more and after being down 1-3, he made it 3-3 after six games.
It seemed that the more experienced Spaniard will be able to take his younger compatriot and friend into a tie-break in the second set, but Alcaraz proved to be too good, winning the last 9 points of the match to secure a 6-3, 7-5 win.
Up next, the teenage phenomenon will meet another countryman, this time the tenth-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who made sure that only seeded players will play in the quarterfinals, after eliminating Emil Ruusuvuori.
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