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Rock-solid Ruud racks up season-leading win in Barcelona

Casper Ruud racked up a tour-leading 26th win of the season on Thursday by reaching the Barcelona Open quarter-finals.

The world number six from Norway eased past Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-1, 6-4 to move clear of Jannik Sinner for most wins in 2024.

Ruud, the runner-up to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Monte Carlo Masters last weekend, raced into a 5-0 lead against Thompson.

He then clinched a break in the seventh game of the second set before moving onto victory in just 73 minutes.

Ruud will next face Matteo Arnaldi after the Italian world number 40 defeated Argentina's Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 6-0.

Seventh-ranked Tsitsipas clinched a 7-5, 6-3 triumph against Roberto Carballes Baena as the Greek extended his winning streak to eight matches.

"It's good to be on a streak like this," said Tsitsipas, whose title run in Monte Carlo was his first of this season.

"It tends to get tougher, the more you proceed. To maintain it is the most difficult part, so to have that number so far is good. It adds confidence to me, I really like to be on a streak like this."

Britain's Cameron Norrie defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-3 to make the last eight and record his 200th tour-level win.

"It's a big tournament with a lot of historic past champions, so I want to try and win this tournament," said Norrie of the Spanish clay-court event.

On Wednesday, Spanish veteran Bautista Agut had won his 400th career match by seeing off Andrea Vavassori in the second round.

"I know that yesterday Roberto got 400, so I'm halfway to his. To get 400 wins is impressive and I'll take that, a 200th win against a top player," added Norrie.

The Briton next faces Argentine 13th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry for a place in the semi-finals.

With Bautista Agut and Carballes Baena defeated, the tournament has no Spanish players left with 12-time winner Rafael Nadal having exited on Wednesday.

Australian fourth seed Alex de Minaur, the man who knocked out Nadal, was himself defeated on Thursday, losing to world number 36 Arthur Fils of France 7-5, 6-2.
Source: AFP