Advance the table and the favorites get bigger: except in the case of Casper Ruud, who falls against Francisco Cerundolo in the twilight, the seeds move pushed by the public and the generous spring in the city, a gift for urbanite and a nonsense for the committed water management.
Stéfanos Tsitsipàs (24) takes on Denis Shapovalov, a fellow Next Gen whose career promises so much and never takes off (6-3 and 6-2), and now meets Alex de Miñaur, another Next Gen who has passed the round without changing, blessed by the stomach problems of Grigor Dimitrov, out of action yesterday.
- I played a good match, and that's important: Shapovalov has tricks, he's more aggressive than many players, and he forces you to stay safe and responsible in everything you do - says Tsitsipàs, a two-time finalist in Barcelona (2018 and 2021), victim of Christmas on both occasions.
Jannik Sinner (21) has more conflicts with Yoshihito Nishioka. Plagued by muscle problems, he has to resort to three sets and his range of shots to get rid of the combative and fighting Japanese left-hander, a drain for the Italian ice cream (6-1, 4-6 and 6 -3).
-Each rival forces me to play a little better. Against Nishioka, I had to calm down in the third set because the match was getting complicated for me - says the Italian, who has learned to modify his things depending on the opponent.
("If I face Tsitsipas, I try to raise the bot in the second serve to counter the Greek's response in this way", he explains to Federico Bertelli, who writes for Ubi Tennis).
In the third round of the Rafael Nadal court, the wind starts to blow and raises the dust and Carlos Alcaraz (19) maneuvers to tear apart the web that Roberto Bautista (6-3 and 7-5) has been patiently weaving.
Before the outcome, Bautista has been simmering.
He proposed long drives, took little risks and manipulated the 2022 champion, which is fire in the windy late spring, a festival of clashing feelings that now calms down, now revolts.
The world number two got impatient and committed too many unforced errors, as many as ten in the first five games, so many that he cursed and even threatened to throw his racket on the clay.
- These matches are carried out officially - he will confess later.
It took Alcaraz 35 minutes to catch up, five games in all, until he signed a drop to add a point, then sent a wonderful backhand cross to tie another point, breaking Bautista's serve and refocusing on the match .
In one stroke, he chained four consecutive games, and won the first set in the end (after 53 minutes), and from then on Bautista would no longer find a way to mess up the Murcian, who is projected towards the quarters in the end, where another tennis player from our country awaits him, the combative Alejandro Davidovich, version 2.0 of Roberto Bautista.
– Bautista is very tough. If you look at it from the outside, it seems that its reverse is inconspicuous. But then, on the track, you see that it's not so much. And he has a very good forehand, and even if it looks like you've won the point, he always gives you one more. Against him, every point is a battle - Alcaraz will say.
– And Bautista and Davidovich, do they look alike?
– Their level is very similar. And Davidovich knows me well. We have never faced each other in an official match, but we have played many sets together, and we both know a lot about each other.
