Tsitsipas eases into Barcelona third round

Second-seeded Greek beats Argentine 6-4, 6-2 in straight sets to advance into last 16 of the tournament

BARCELONA:

Stefanos Tsitsipas cruised into the last 16 of the Barcelona Open on Wednesday with a straight-sets win over Argentina's Pedro Cachin.

Second seed Tsitsipas, twice a Barcelona runner-up to Rafael Nadal in 2018 and 2021, needed just 78 minutes to beat Cachin 6-4, 6-2.

The Greek broke in the fifth game of the opening set and twice more at the start of the second set against his 69th-ranked opponent.

"Obviously, good memories are in the back of my head. It's two finals (in Barcelona), but still you keep the positives instead of sticking too much to what went wrong," said Tsitsipas.

"I'm just happy to be here... I'm just enjoying the tennis and hoping 'Why not?' for the final, but still a very long way to go."

Tsitsipas, whose bid for a third consecutive Monte Carlo Masters title was ended in the quarter-finals last week, will next play Denis Shapovalov.

Fourth seed Jannik Sinner beat Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-4 to set up a third-round meeting with Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka.

Karen Khachanov saw off Chile's Nicolas Jarry in two sets and awaits Dan Evans, who halted the run of Italian qualifier Matteo Arnaldi.

Lorenzo Musetti, who knocked out Novak Djokovic in Monte Carlo, dispatched Australian Jason Kubler 6-3, 6-1, as Grigor Dimitrov and Francisco Cerundolo also eased through the second round.

Cameron Norrie thrashed qualifier Pavel Kotov 6-1, 6-2 while Alex de Minaur dropped just one game as he breezed past Alexander Shevchenko.

Top seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz faces fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut on Thursday for a place in the last eight.