Persistent rain continued to frustrate at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Saturday as play was suspended in the early stages of the semi-finals at the ATP 500 event, with both matches now scheduled to be completed on Sunday morning.

The semi-finals will resume at 11am local time (CEST), with the championship match scheduled for 4pm CEST.

Fifth seed Carlos Alcaraz’s maiden tour-level meeting with Alex de Minaur stands at 2-2 in the opening set. The 18-year-old #NextGenATP Spaniard defeated top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals on Friday, a victory which confirmed the Miami Open presented by Itau champion will break into the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings on Monday.

The semi-final between sixth seed Diego Schwartzman and eighth seed Pablo Carreno Busta also stands at 2-2 in the first set. It is the second year in a row the pair have faced off in Barcelona, with Carreno Busta prevailing in three sets at the quarter-final stage in 2021.

Andrey Rublev produced another scintillating performance at the Serbia Open on Saturday to ease past Fabio Fognini and set a blockbuster final with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the ATP 250 event in Belgrade.

The World No. 8 had produced an exhibition of fierce baseline hitting in his quarter-final clash with Taro Daniel on Friday and Rublev fired a similar streak of brutal forehand winners on his way to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Fognini at the Novak Tennis Center.

Rublev suffered a tough three-set defeat to Jannik Sinner in the third round at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters but has bounced back in style in Serbia. He battled through a three-set clash with Jiri Lehecka in his opening match but there were no such problems against Fognini in Saturday’s semi-final as Rublev showed once again how big a threat he poses on the clay in a quickfire 62-minute win.

Rublev had Fognini under pressure early but the Italian recovered 0/40 to hold serve in the opening game of the match. There was nothing Fognini could do to stop Rublev reeling off the next five games, however, as the second seed struck the ball with power and precision on his way to the first set.

Fognini struggled for fluency in his second tour-level semi-final of the year, but he was given scant room to express himself by his opponent. The Italian battled hard to carve out his only three break point opportunities of the match as Rublev served for it at 5-2 in the second set, but the second seed repelled the threat before clinching victory after Fognini fired a backhand wide.

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Rublev was relentless on serve throughout. He fired five aces and dropped just nine points on serve in the match, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The 10-time tour-level titlist will need to produce a similar display against Djokovic, one of the all-time great returners on the ATP Tour.

The victory brings Rublev level with Fognini at 5-5 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series. Rublev has now triumphed in the pair’s past four meetings.

Rublev chases a third tour-level title of the season in Sunday’s championship match, having captured trophies in Marseille and Dubai in February. It will be the second ATP Head2Head meeting between Djokovic and Rublev, after Djokovic ran out a 6-3, 6-2 winner at the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals in November.

Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar captured their first ATP Tour title of the season Saturday, downing top seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 at the Serbia Open.

The Uruguayan-Ecuadorian team lost in the Belgrade final last season, but ensured they wouldn’t suffer more heartbreak this week, raising their level in the Match Tie-break to triumph after 83 minutes in an entertaining final.

The unseeded duo won 75 per cent (24/32) of their first-serve points against the Croatians and dropped just one set en route to the title.

With their victory, the pair has now clinched three tour-level trophies together after they captured crowns in Delray Beach and Marbella last season. Earlier this year, Behar and Escobar advanced to the championship match at the Adelaide International 2, falling to Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski.

Mektic and Pavic were aiming to clinch their first tour-level title since they won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in July. The top seeds won a tour-leading nine titles in 2021, but have struggled to find their best form in 2022.

Home favourite Alexander Zverev leads the draw in Munich at the BMW Open by American Express, and could face a second-round matchup against #NextGenATP wild card Holger Rune.

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Zverev, a native of Hamburg, won the Munich title in 2017 and 2018 but fell in the quarter-finals in his past two appearances. He is joined in the top half of the draw by seeded players Reilly Opelka, Cristian Garin and Daniel Evans — the Briton a potential quarter-final opponent.

Second seed Casper Ruud could face Marrakech finalist Alex Molcan in the second round, while Nikoloz Basilashvili and Miomir Kecmanovic could meet in the quarter-finals if the seeds hold.

The pick of the opening-round matches may be eighth seed Botic van de Zandschulp’s meeting with #NextGenATP American Brandon Nakashima, with the pair set to open their ATP Head2Head series.

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At the Millennium Estoril Open, top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime looks to build on a Barcelona quarter-final run and could face Dominic Thiem or Sebastian Korda in the quarter-finals. Thiem, playing as a wild card in the second ATP Tour event of his injury return, opens against France’s Benjamin Bonzi ahead of a potential second-round meeting with eighth seed Korda.

Monte Carlo finalist Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, now at a career-high of No. 27 in the ATP Rankings, earns a bye as the Estoril fourth seed and will open against Federico Coria or a qualifier.

Diego Schwartzman and Marin Cilic lead the bottom half of the draw and will hope to meet in the semis.

Novak Djokovic is relishing the battle at the Serbia Open this week.

The World No. 1 fought back from a set down for the third consecutive match on Saturday to complete a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Karen Khachanov and reach the championship match at his hometown tournament for the third time.

Just like in his previous rounds against Laslo Djere and Miomir Kecmanovic, Djokovic made a slow start in the semi-final clash as Khachanov came out striking cleanly off both wings. Top-seeded Djokovic responded in style, arguably producing his best two sets of the week to storm back for a one-hour, 59-minute victory and extend his winning record in Serbia to 37-5.

The win gives Djokovic the chance to pick up his maiden title in 2022 in front of his home fans on Sunday against Andrey Rublev or Fabio Fognini. The Serb now holds a 13-2 match record at the Belgrade event and there were real signs on Saturday that he is finding his best form as he seeks to lift the trophy at the ATP 250 event for the third time.

Khachanov showed real intent to take advantage of an error-strewn start from Djokovic to break in the first game of the match, and it was enough to clinch a tight first set at the Novak Tennis Center. The World No. 26 struck the ball fiercely in the opening exchanges with both players also showing silky touches at the net as Djokovic began to settle into the encounter.

Despite Djokovic dropping the opening set an energetic crowd could sense the home favourite had upped his level and the Serb’s masterful returning earned him a double break in the second set, which he sealed with an ace.

There was little Khachanov could do to halt Djokovic’s momentum as the 20-time Grand Slam champion began to fire in all aspects of his game. Two further breaks in the deciding set sealed the clash for Djokovic as he extended his ATP Head2Head series lead over Khachanov to 6-1.

Khachanov may have been unable to maintain his early momentum against Djokovic but he will be pleased with his run to the semi-finals on tournament debut after snapping a four-match losing streak with his second-round win over Roman Safiullin. The 25-year-old is still hunting for his first title since his sole victory over Djokovic brought him the title at the Rolex Paris Masters in 2018.

More to follow…