Barcelona Open: Tsitsipas cruises into second round

Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 3 seed, defeated American Reilly Opelka 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Barcelona Open at Real Club de Tenis Barcelona on Tuesday.

Tsitsipas, ranked No 16, will play American Sebastian Korda next, and was happy to bounce back from a below-par performance in the quarter-finals in Monte-Carlo last week.

“I’m happy with the way I found relief through fighting, particularly in the difficult moments when he was serving,” Tsitsipas said, quoted by the ATP Tour website. “I knew the serve was going to be the trickiest part.

“I got a few metres back (on return) and used that space effectively. I felt I was able to return way more returns than initially expected. I kept my cool when I had to, it was a good win.”

Barcelona ATP 500, other first-round results (Real Club de Tenis Barcelona, clay, EUR 2.889.200, most recent results first):

• Stan Wawrinka vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Ethan Quinn
• Karen Khachanov vs. Cameron Norrie
• Frances Tiafoe vs. Jaume Munar
• Daniel Elahi Galan vs. Casper Ruud
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Alex De Minaur
• Laslo Djere vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Sebastian Baez vs. Damir Dzumhur: tuesday
• Pablo Carreno Busta vs. Arthur Fils: tuesday
• Andrey Rublev (4) beat Jesper De Jong (Q): 6-1, 6-3
• Holger Rune (6) beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas (WC): 7-5, 6-4
• Hamad Medjedovic (Q) beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard: 7-5, 7-6 (6)
• Jacob Fearnley (LL) beat Roberto Carballes Baena: 6-1, 7-5
• Sebastian Korda beat Matteo Arnaldi: 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
• Pedro Martinez Portero beat Brandon Nakashima: 7-5, 5-7, 6-4