Casper Ruud moves on in Barcelona

BARCELONA: Third-seeded Casper Ruud defeated 14th-seeded Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Thursday in Spain.

Ruud, of Norway, won the first five games of the first set and overcame four aces by the Australian to capture the match in 73 minutes. Ruud will face Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the next round.

Fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia was unable to follow up the momentum of his victory over Rafael Nadal on Wednesday, as he dropped a 7-5, 6-2 decision to 16th-seeded Arthur Fils of France. Other seeded winners included No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, No. 12 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain and No. 13 Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina.

Eleventh-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and 17th-seeded Fabian Marozsan were not as fortunate. The former dropped a 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-1 decision to Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, while the latter fell 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina.

In the Tiriac Open, Marton Fucsovics of Hungary recorded a 7-5, 6-1 win over second-seeded Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands to advance to the third round in Bucharest, Romania. Fucsovics fired five aces and overcame two double faults to dispatch Griekspoor in 91 minutes. In the quarterfinals, he will face Frenchman Corentin Moutet, who upended seventh-seeded Nuno Borges of Portugal 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-2. Wild card Joao Fonseca of Brazil defeated Moldovan qualifier Radu Albot 7-6 (2), 6-2, as he broke Albot’s serve three times in four chances.