Top seed Carlos Alcaraz moved a step closer to winning his home-nation tournament for a third time, topping Arthur Fils of France 6-2, 6-4 to move to the finals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell in Spain.
Alcaraz fought off both the seventh-seeded Fils and a sustained wind to run his winning streak to nine matches. He won the title in Barcelona in both 2022 and 2023. Fils, of France, was hampered by 38 unforced errors, compared to 13 for Alcaraz in the 75-minute match.
In the final, Alcaraz will meet sixth-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Karen Khachanov of Russia. Rune converted four of six break chances against Khachanov, who also was bitten by his ratio of winners (five) to unforced errors (17) in 67 minutes.
This will be the first clay-court final since Rome in 2023 for Rune, who will climb back into the Top 10 when new rankings are released Monday.
BMW Open
Ben Shelton became the first American man since Andre Agassi in 2002 to reach the final of a clay-court ATP 500 or 1000 tournament — or the French Open — as he came back to top Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 in Munich.
Cerundolo twice was within two points of winning the match in the second-set tiebreaker but couldn’t reach match point. Instead, Shelton converted his fourth set point to force the decider.
In the final, he will face top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, who knocked out Fabian Marozsan of Hungary 7-6 (3), 6-3. Zverev also is seeking his third triumph in his home-nation tournament after winning in Munich in both 2017 and 2018.
–Field Level Media
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