There was double disaster at the Barcelona Open as both Richard Gasquet and David Ferrer visited the Barcelona FC football stadium, Camp Nou, before pulling out of the competition due to injury.
Ferrer quit the tournament after failing to recover from an ongoing calf injury. Meanwhile Gasquet confirmed that a back injury is the reason behind his exit. The withdrawal is a severe blow to the tournament, that is also without the presence of former champion and local favorite Tommy Robredo. Their places will be taken in the draw by lucky losers Malek Jaziri and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
On the court, the big talking point of the day was the surprising defeat of one of the most in-form players this season, Roberto Bautista Agut, who was knocked out by rising-star Karen Khachanov 6-2, 6-7, 6-3 in 2 hours and 24 minutes. The tall Russian left the fans in awe with his tremendously hard hitting groundstrokes, which drowned out the power of Bautista’s hitting, which isn’t precisely soft.
Khachanov, whose residence is in Barcelona, where he trains with Galo Blanco (responsible for Milos Raonic’s breakthrough onto the circuit), proved he has the game to cause a lot of damage on tour. All of this one day after surviving a match point against Aljaz Bedene in the opening round. The Russian was seemingly unstoppable at a set and a break up, but Bautista fought back to win the second set in a tiebreak. Given the Spaniard’s greater experience, spectators could be forgiven for believing that Khachanov was going to bow out in the decider. The 19-year-old maintained his mental strength and, just as importantly, still had the stamina to hit thunderbolts from the back of the court.
The Russian sealed the most important victory of his young career at the same tournament as another up and coming Russian caught the eye of the world twelve months earlier: Andrey Rublev. He will try to prolong the fairytale against Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round after the Ukrainian survived three sets against Evgeny Donskoy (4-6, 7-6, 6-4).
There was plenty more action today, with French seeds Benoit Paire and Jeremy Chardy safely navigating into the third round. Meanwhile, Marcel Granollers and Albert Ramos came through their all-Spanish duels with Daniel Muñoz and Jaume Munar respectively.
Tomorrow the focus will switch onto the recently crowned Monte-Carlo champion, Rafa Nadal, who will start his bid for a ninth title at home. The Spaniard will kick-off his tournament against good friend and compatriot Marcel Granollers in the second round.
