Ruud escapes trouble to beat Medjedovic, continues Barcelona title defence

Casper Ruud navigated two tricky sets against a big-hitting Hamad Medjedovic to continue his title defence Wednesday at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. The Norwegian second seed delivered a disciplined and clutch performance to notch a 7-5, 7-5 victory against the qualifier, staying the course in the face of unrelenting power from the 21-year-old Serbian.

Through to his 38th tour-level quarter-final on clay, Ruud is bidding to become the fourth man this century to successfully defend the Barcelona title after 11-time champion Rafael Nadal, Kei Nishikori and Carlos Alcaraz. Having entered the event at No. 10 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Ruud must win the title in order to remain in the Top 10; he is currently No. 15 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

Title defence on track ⚔️🛡️@CasperRuud98 is quarter-final bound, navigating past Medjedovic 7-5 7-5 in a gritty Barcelona clash!@bcnopenbs | #BCNOpenBS pic.twitter.com/yRDAkpawIn

— ATP Tour (@atptour) April 16, 2025

Ruud has not dropped a set in Barcelona dating back to the start of his 2024 run, but that streak was in danger after a shaky start against Medjedovic, who was seeking the second Top 10 win of his career. The Serbian, champion at the 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, broke in the first game of the match with help from an opening double fault, but could not convert on any of the eight break chances he created in the set after that game.

Ruud saved nine of 11 break points in the match, according to Infosys ATP Stats, including three from 0/40 at 5-5 in the first set. He also battled through five deuces to hold at 5-5 in the second set — the longest game of the match at 10 minutes — before breaking at love to clinch victory. Medjedovic, who started firmly on the front foot, thrilled the stadium crowd with a late resurgence but could not sustain his charge after Ruud's titanic service hold.

"That was quite fortunate today. I'm also happy with my mentality, that I didn't give up, that I tried to hang in there," Ruud said. "I saved some really important break points and broke him at 6-5 in both sets, so that's kind of a little bit fortunate sometimes, but the last game I played some really good points.

"It was a little bit too much up and down today for my personal liking, but very proud of the mentality I had and just tried my best every point and luckily at the end I could win the match."

Ruud will next face Holger Rune in Friday's quarter-finals, after the sixth-seeded Dane beat Sebastian Baez 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 earlier on Wednesday.

Stefanos Tsitsipas also advanced to the quarter-finals with a 7-6(4), 6-4 result against Sebastian Korda. The third-seeded Greek did not face a break point in the victory, though he converted on just one of the seven break chances he created.

By avenging his defeat to Korda last month in the Miami third round, Tsitsipas improved to 2-1 in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head. Through to his fifth consecutive Barcelona quarter-final, Tsitsipas is also into his 17th quarter-final in 19 clay events played since the start of the 2022 season. His lone early exits came at Roland Garros in 2022 and in Madrid last season.

The Greek's quarter-final opponent will be seventh-seeded Frenchman Arthur Fils, a 6-3, 6-2 winner against Pedro Martinez.