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 this year.
Ruud, the runner-up to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Monte Carlo Masters last weekend, raced into a 5-0 lead against Thompson.
Photo: EPA-EFE
He then clinched a break in the seventh game of the second set before moving onto victory in just 73 minutes.
Ruud is to next face Matteo Arnaldi after the Italian world number 40 defeated Argentine 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,” he added.
British 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,” Norrie said.
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 OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946