STEFANOS Tsitsipas will join the top three players in the world in the semi-finals of the 2020 ATP Barcelona Open fantasy tennis competition. The Greek talent was able to win through to the final four with a straight sets win over 13th seed Russian, Andrey Rublev, joining Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem in the penultimate round of the tournament.

Tsitsipas had the smoothest match of the lot despite being the lowest ranked winner, taking on the 13th seed who had shown some good form to date. But a couple of extra breaks in each set saw the 2019 ATP Finals winner advance through to the semis, winning 6-4 6-4 in an hour and 18 minutes.

The world number six now faces world number one, Djokovic in one of two blockbuster semi-finals. Djokovic was severely tested by 11th seed Argentinian, Diego Schwartzman in three sets but shook him off to win 6-2 5-7 6-2. Schwartzman showed he belonged in the final eight after an upset win over Alexander Zverev yesterday, and by the 90-minute mark had levelled the match with the world number one. Unfortunately he could not maintain Djokovic’s clean hitting ability for long enough as the Serbian cruised home in the third set.

In the other half of the draw, regular clay court foes Nadal and Thiem face off in the other semi-final in what was a predicted outcome once the draw was announced. Having done so in the Monte Carlo final last week, the world numbers two and three will do it all again after surviving two respective tight quarter finals.

Nadal came from a set down to find his rhythm midway through the second set to trounce former world number one Andy Murray with the last nine games of the match to win 3-6 6-3 6-0. Thiem also had to come from behind against Kei Nishikori, but had it a bit tougher right to the finish line. Eventually he got up and defeated the Japanese talent 3-6 6-2 6-4.

Nadal and Thiem face off in the first semi-final tomorrow before Djokovic and Tsitsipas go head-to-head in the other one straight after.

QUARTER FINALS RESULTS:

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) defeated [11] Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 6-2 5-7 6-2
[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) defeated [WC] Andy Murray (GBR) 3-6 6-3 6-0
[3] Dominic Thiem (AUT) defeated Kei Nishikori (JPN) 3-6 6-2 6-4
[6] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) defeated [13] Andrey Rublev (RUS) 6-4 6-4