Barcelona quarter finals

Quarter final day in Barcelona.

Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell - an ATP 500 category tournament, on Red Clay, in Barcelona, Spain, 22-28 April 2019.

Defending champion:

Rafa Nadal (1) who defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2 6-1

- Daniil Medvedev (7) v lucky loser Nicolás Jarry

Jarry took huge advantage of being given a lucky loser spot in the main draw, with three wins, including those over second seed Zverev and thirteenth seed Dimitrov. His three matches had all gone the distance, the last two decided by tie breaks. Medvedev had won more matches in 2019 than anyone else to this stage, and he started warm favourite in todays match, the first time the pair had met.

Medvedev served first and thanks to errors from Jarry was leading 30-0. Jarry then won three straight points, the first with a forehand cross court winner, and the third a confident overhead at the net, to earn a break point. The Russian fought off the danger, and led 1-0.  Jarry held in turn for 1-1. A love game for Medvedev included a second serve ace, while the Chilean also found it easy, dropping only a single point to level at 2-2. The Jarry backhand and drop shot worked in his favour.

Medvedev now was in no trouble on serve, whether or not he landed his first attempt. Jarry was made to dig deeper to stay with the seventh seed, as evidenced in game six, where he was taken to deuce.

Serving at 3-4, Jarry struck further difficulty. From 30-0, unforced errors led to a break point, which was saved through a forehand exploiting how deep Medvedev was sitting. A Russian backhand passing shot produced a second break chance. A Chilean forehand error confirmed the break and 5-3 for Medvedev. 

Serving for the set, Medvedev quickly found 40-0, and three set points, all from Jarry errors. One was saved with a brilliant Jarry backhand volley at the net, but the next point saw a forehand error and Medvedev had the set 6-3.

No break points were faced in six games of set two, the closest being Medvedev taken to deuce in the sixth game. Game seven was a marathon 24 point affair. Three unforced forehand errors gave Medvedev two break points, but these were saved. Then three game points for Jarry vanished. Another pair of break points came and went before two more game points disappeared. A fifth break point was saved to reach a ninth deuce and finally, after a netted Jarry forehand produced a sixth break point, the Chilean pushed a forehand wide. Medvedev led by a set and a break.

It wasn’t easy to consolidate the break. After leading 40-30, Medvedev double faulted twice to give Jarry a break back chance. A huge serve obliterated that hope, and the lead extended to 5-3.

Medvedev proceeded to win the match 6-3 6-4.

- Rafa Nadal (1) defeated Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5 7-5

- Kei Nishikori (4) defeated lucky loser Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4 7-5

- Dominic Thiem (3) defeated Guido Pella 7-5 6-2

Semi final match ups 

Rafa Nadal (1) v Dominic Thiem (3)

Kei Nishikori (4) v Daniil Medvedev (7)