Saturday at the ATP 500 event in Barcelona will feature the two semifinals, with the guarantee that we will have a new champion at this prestigious event and a first time champion at ATP 500 level as well, with none of the remaining players having won a tournament of this category yet. After contesting the Monte Carlo final last week, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud are clearly favorites to repeat that matchup this Sunday, but Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Dusan Lajovic know how to play on this surface and will surely be extremely motivated to win the biggest title of their careers to date.
ATP Barcelona Semifinal Predictions
Casper Ruud vs Tomas Martin Etcheverry
Head-to-head: Ruud 1-0 Etcheverry
Etcheverry wasn’t having a good 2024 before this week, but this week he has been playing some great tennis and on clay he is a force to be reckoned with when he is playing well. For Ruud it has been a year of close but no cigar, with several deep runs but no titles yet. So far this clay season he lost in the semifinals in Estoril and then in the Monte Carlo final. He will be hoping to go one better this week and finally win a title above 250, but this semifinal will likely not be an easy one for him. Etcheverry has been playing well enough to make life extremely complicated for the two-time Roland Garros finalist.
Prediction: Ruud in 3
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Dusan Lajovic
Head-to-head: Tsitsipas 3-1 Lajovic
Tsitsipas has really come back to life in this clay season; he struggled against Diaz Acosta today and even had to save a match point, but he managed to pull his ninth consecutive win. After winning Monte Carlo last week, he is the favorite to win Barcelona as well; on clay Tsitsipas is without a doubt one of the world’s best players. Lajovic has been playing well this week, and has played in a Masters final on this surface, but at this stage he is very unlikely to derail the Greek here. Still, a good match to watch.
Prediction: Tsitsipas in 2
Main photo credit: Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
