ATP roundup: Norway’s Casper Ruud marches ahead in Barcelona

Third-seeded Casper Ruud defeated 14th-seeded Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Thursday in Spain. Ruud, of Norway, won the first five games of the first set and overcame four aces by the Australian to capture the match in 73 minutes. Ruud will face Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the next round.

Fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia was unable to follow up the momentum of his victory over Rafael Nadal on Wednesday, as he dropped a 7-5, 6-2 decision to 16th-seeded Arthur Fils of France. Other seeded winners included No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, No. 12 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain and No. 13 Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina.

Eleventh-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and 17th-seeded Fabian Marozsan were not as fortunate. The former dropped a 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-1 decision to Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, while the latter fell 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina.

Marton Fucsovics of Hungary recorded a 7-5, 6-1 win over second-seeded Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands to advance to the third round in Bucharest, Romania. Fucsovics fired five aces and overcame two double faults to dispatch Griekspoor in 91 minutes. In the quarterfinals, he will face Frenchman Corentin Moutet, who upended seventh-seeded Nuno Borges of Portugal 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-2.

Wild card Joao Fonseca of Brazil defeated Moldovan qualifier Radu Albot 7-6 (2), 6-2, as he broke Albot’s serve three times in four chances.

Second-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark notched a 6-4, 6-2 win over Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia to advance to the third round in Munich. Rune benefited from seven aces and won 92.9 percent of his first-serve points (26 of 28) to capture the match in one hour, 39 minutes.

No. 3 seed Taylor Fritz, No. 4 Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany and No. 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada were also victorious. Fritz breezed to a 6-3, 6-1 win over Alejandro Moro Canas of Sapin, Struff outlasted Botic Van De Zandschulp of the Netherlands 7-6 (0), 6-4 and Auger-Aliassime notched a 6-3, 6-2 win over Taro Daniel of Japan.

Cristian Garin of Chile and Swiss qualifier Marc-Andre Huesler also won their matches.

No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland swept past Belgium’s Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany. Swiatek — the two-time defending champion who has never lost a match in Stuttgart — saved 5 of 7 break points while going 4-for-6 in breaking Mertens.

The four-time Grand Slam champion’s next opponent will be 2021 U.S. Open winner Emma Raducanu of Great Britain. Raducanu, who is on the comeback trail after wrist and ankle surgeries this time last year, beat Czech teenager Linda Noskova 6-0, 7-5.

Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk saved five match points in the 10th game of the third set while rallying to vanquish Chinese fifth seed Qinwen Zheng 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. Italy’s Jasmine Paolini upset No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 7-6 (8), 6-4, while No. 4 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and No. 6 Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic both advanced.