If you want to win big at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Barcelona this year, you have to show stamina. Due to the bad weather across Europe, which is no exception for the Catalan capital, the clay court specialists had to work a double shift on Friday. The tougher conditions resulted in some great tennis games on Friday's round of 16 and quarter-finals, which were certainly not lacking in top tennis.

Pablo Carreno Busta clearly shot the bird: The local hero spent a total of 5:45 hours on the clay courts of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell yesterday - the quarterfinals against second seed Casper Ruud, which the Iberians 4: 6, 7: 6 (8) , won 6:3, lasted 3:02 hours alone. Carreno Busta also fended off three match points from his opponent in the second round. Diego Schwartzman (Argentina) had previously beat third-placed Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. In the head-to-head of the two semi-finalists, the Spaniard is 2-1.

Second semi-final: Alcaraz - de Minaur

Cameron Norrie had to deal with the Australian Alex de Minaur in a duel for a place in the semifinals and, despite winning the second round, ultimately lost 3:6, 7:5, 1:6. In the quarter-finals, which was nominally the strongest, tournament favorite Stefanos Tsitsipas and the Spanish youngster Carlos Alcaraz offered a very respectable game in the end, in which the remaining spectators were also able to follow the entire distance.

Until the middle of the second set it seemed to be a clear affair for the 18-year-old, but then the Greek managed the turn-around. In the decisive third act, the youngster from Murcia found the better start and promptly took the lead with a break. Even after that, Tsitsipas had nothing more to gain and even got into arguments with the referee because of long breaks before the service, which in the end also earned him point deductions. The number one of the tournament finally lost 4:6, 7:5 and 2:6 after 2:12 hours of play.

Densely packed program since 12 noon

The remaining eighth-final games had already been played at noon: First, Rafa Nadal Auger-Aliassime and Alcaraz were able to prevail in two sets each - the Canadian retained 7: 5, 6: 4 over the American Frances Tiafoe Upper hand, the Spaniard had few problems at 6: 3, 6: 3 over his compatriot Jaume Munar. At the same time Jan Kodes Carreno Busta won 6:2, 5:7, 6:2 against Lorenzo Sonego from Italy and Tsitsipas easily 6:1, 6:4 against Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria.

On Pista 2, Ruud made short work of the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori with a score of 6: 2, 6: 2, Norrie had a lot more trouble with 7: 5, 6: 7 (9) and 6: 4 against the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics. On Pista 3, Italy's Lorenzo Musetti suffered a 4-6, 5-7 loss to Argentina's Diego Schwartzman. De Minaur, who was 6-0 after 20 minutes, benefited from an injury-related retirement by his opponent Lloyd Harris of South Africa.

Here the individual tableau from Barcelona.