Grigor Dimitrov maintained his strong record at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters Thursday, upsetting fourth seed Casper Ruud 6-3, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals for the fourth time.

The Bulgarian hit with controlled aggression throughout on Court Rainier III, stepping deep behind the baseline at times to take large cuts at the ball as he dictated with his groundstrokes to advance after one hour and 31 minutes.

“I was really looking forward to the match,” Dimitrov said in his on-court interview. “I knew if I did the right things, good things would come out of it. Casper is such a great player on whatever surface. He has proved it over and over again at such a young age, which is nice to see. I liked that matchup and wanted to see where I was physically and mentally. I just played and enjoyed the game.”

The World No. 29 has played some of his best tennis at the ATP Masters 1000 clay-court event in the past, reaching the last eight in 2013 and 2015 and the semi-finals in 2018.

Dimitrov, who is making his ninth appearance in Monte Carlo, has also earned wins against 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka, former World No. 7 Fernando Verdasco and World No. 6 Matteo Berrettini at the tournament over the years.

“It is always tough this week because you are switching surfaces,” Dimitrov added. “So I try and not be too tough on myself in practice. I just try to do the simple things. It is going so well so far.”

Dimitrov has now levelled his ATP Head2Head series with Ruud at 1-1 and will next meet 11th seed Hubert Hurkacz after the Pole defeated Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6(2), 6-2.

Following his victory over the Norwegian, Dimitrov has already recorded the same number of wins on clay in 2022 than he managed in the whole of last season. The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion went 3-8 on the surface in 2021, while he is 3-0 this year.

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Dimitrov dominated the longer rallies in the first set, winning 19 of 29 points that went over five shots as he dictated the backhand exchanges. Ruud started to have more success when he targeted Dimitrov’s forehand but from 1-5 down in the opener, the mountain was too big to climb.

The second set was a much tighter affair with both players strong on serve. There were no break points offered up until the 12th game of the set, when Dimitrov produced an impressive return game to advance on his third match point.

“Despite certain moments, I felt like I was making the right decisions,” Dimitrov said. “You don’t have to make things more complicated. I was reading the game well, which helped me a lot. I made a lot of returns, which gave me an advantage to start points aggressively.”

Ruud, who has captured six tour-level titles on clay, reached his maiden Masters 1000 final at the Miami Open presented by Itau at the start of April. The Norwegian advanced to the semi-finals in Monte Carlo in 2021 and defeated #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune in his first match this week.

Taylor Fritz is transferring his strong hard-court results onto clay this week, with the 10th seed winning an all-American battle against Sebastian Korda on Thursday in Monte Carlo.

The 24-year-old captured his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells in March and has now reached the quarter-finals at four of the past five Masters 1000 events following his 7-6(4), 7-5 victory over Korda. Fritz is the first American man to reach the last eight in Monte Carlo since Sam Querrey in 2008.

“I thought the match today was pretty good,” Fritz said. “I was looking out for his return. I think I did a good job serving, mixing up all my spots. I fought off his returns on my second serves, which was the main focus. It was really good conditions today, so I was able to play what I felt was my best match.”

Fritz, who is making his third appearance at the Monte Carlo Country Club, will next play Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after the Spaniard, who shocked World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the second round, moved past Marrakech champion David Goffin 6-4, 6-1.

Eight years ago, Joe Salisbury was competing in his senior season as a student-athlete at the University of Memphis. On Thursday, the Briton will play his first match as the No. 1 doubles player in the world at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

But going back to Salisbury’s beginnings at Memphis, it was far from a sure thing that today he would stand atop the ATP Doubles Rankings. When University of Memphis Head Coach Paul Goebel recruited Salisbury, he was recovering from mono and a lower back injury, and had barely been playing tennis. The longtime coach did not immediately know the talent he had on his hands.

“It probably wasn’t right away to be honest. He was probably a riskier recruit just because he hadn’t been playing and with the injury, if it came back then he might not have even gotten to play,” Goebel told ATPTour.com. “So I was very patient with him and told him I would be up front.”

But once Goebel began to see his charge compete during his first spring season, it became apparent that Salisbury was a tough competitor.

“The best of him always, always came out on match day, which is what you want as a coach,” Goebel said. “There could be a lot of great practice players. I would not classify him as even a good practice player, but he is an unbelievable match day player.”

Part of what makes Salisbury a top player is his athleticism. His peers have raved about his ability to cover the court, whether that’s quickly poaching a volley at the net or rushing back to smash away a lob that normally would be out of reach.

“He’s able to take balls from deep, short, angles and put them away,” said Rajeev Ram, Salisbury’s doubles partner. “He can do amazing things with the overhead. He’s a great athlete.”

^{Photo Credit: Peter Staples/ATP Tour}
Goebel remembered similar attributes from when Salisbury was at Memphis, adding, “He was super athletic. I think everything he does seems to have a purpose behind it. He might not practise as long or sometimes even as hard, but he was very clear in what he wanted to get done.

“We could set goals that we wanted to accomplish as far as adding parts to his game and he would very much accept doing that, even if it meant he’d go backwards and you’re not feeling like you’re playing good, but he’s working on parts of his game for his future.”

As much as Salisbury enjoys lifting trophies and competing on the sport’s biggest stages, it is the daily grind that he enjoys the most. That is what gives him the most satisfaction.

“Being able to do something that you love doing, that you’re passionate about and trying to improve every day, the excitement of competing, playing matches, I think that’s the main thing that I really enjoy,” Salisbury told ATPTour.com. “It’s that I’m doing something that I’m passionate about and I want to be doing it, not because of winning titles or earning prize money. It’s because I want to get better at this sport and be the best that I can.”

Salisbury is not a player who seeks attention. But from Goebel’s early days around him, he saw that the Briton’s actions spoke louder than words. When teammates might have needed a nudge to stretch or do extra work on their game or their body, Salisbury had already done it.

“I will say, with the belief he had in himself and the way he always conducted himself, I knew he was going to be a tremendous professional,” Goebel said. “You could just tell there was something [special].”

ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi presented Erste Bank Open Tournament Director Herwig Straka on Wednesday with a trophy to recognise the Vienna event being named the ATP 500 Tournament of the Year in the 2021 ATP Awards.

“We are very pleased that the Erste Bank Open were voted the ATP 500 tournament of the year for the first time in our long history,” Straka said last year. “We take this as an award for the entire team, which prepares and implements the event with great motivation every year. We consistently try to improve and innovate the Erste Bank Open, like this year’s launch of the ‘Tennis 2 Go’ project, to offer both players and fans world-class tennis and entertainment at the highest level.”

It was the first time the Erste Bank Open was named the ATP 500 Tournament of the year. The event, which was first held in 1974, attracted nearly 60,000 fans last year despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The fans flocked to both the Stadthalle and “Tennis 2 Go”, a new second-match location in the city centre at the Wiener Eislaufverein.

The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (ATP Masters 1000) and the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha (ATP 250) were named as Tournament of the Year in their respective categories last year.

The third time was the charm for Andrey Rublev against Alex de Minaur.

The fifth seed earned his first victory against the Australian (1-2) on Wednesday evening, when he rallied for a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory to reach the third round of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. Rublev will next play ninth seed Jannik Sinner for a place in the quarter-finals.

Rublev entered his match against De Minaur with an 0-2 record against his fellow Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals alumnus. After losing the first set 2-6 and facing two break points in the first game of the second set, it seemed the 2021 Monte Carlo finalist was in trouble.

But on the second of those break points, De Minaur missed a forehand drop volley, and from there the momentum shifted. Rublev won 11 of the next 13 games to move to the brink of victory at 5-1 in the third set.

De Minaur battled hard to claw within one break in the decider and earn three break points at 4-5, but the fifth seed managed to close out the match after two hours and three minutes.

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Sinner’s triumph was not as complicated. The Italian eliminated Finnish qualifier Emil Ruusuvuori 7-5, 6-3 after one hour and 43 minutes.

Just weeks ago on the hard courts of the Miami Open presented by Itau, Sinner saved three match points en route to defeating Ruusuvuori in a final-set tie-break. This time, the ninth seed converted five of his 10 break points.

Rublev and Sinner are level at 1-1 in their ATP Head2Head series, but Rublev’s win came in Vienna in 2020 after just three games when Sinner retired.

Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic got their Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters title defence off to a smooth start on Wednesday with a straight-sets win over defending singles champion Stefanos Tsitsipas and Petros Tsitsipas.

The Croatian pairing arrived in Monte Carlo hunting a first title of 2022 but they showed no signs of pressure as they clinched a 6-3 6-3 second-round victory over the Greek brothers in 72 minutes.

Mektic and Pavic saved the only break point they faced in the match as they dominated on serve, even when under pressure. The second seeds won 89 per cent (16/18) points behind their second delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

Mektic and Pavic’s 2021 triumph in Monte Carlo was the second of three Masters 1000 titles they won last year. Mektic in particular knows his way around the Monaco clay, having also won the title in 2019 alongside Franko Skugor.

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Mektic and Pavic will now face sixth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the quarter-finals, after the Colombian pair beat Santiago Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-2, 6-4.

Two-time semi-finalists Cabal and Farah are yet to lift a trophy in 2022, but the 2019 Wimbledon and US Open champions proved too strong for Gonzalez and Molteni in Monaco as they kept their bid for a third Masters 1000 title on track.

In Wednesday’s other second-round match, Tim Puetz and Michael Venus overcame Aslan Karatsev and John Peers in a Match tie-break to book their spot in the last eight.

Reigning Rolex Paris Masters champions Puetz and Venus are seeking a second title of the year after lifting the trophy in Dubai in February. The fifth seeds face either top-ranked pairing Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury or Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar in the quarter-finals.

As the field shrinks, the spotlight grows in Monte Carlo. Eight singles matches are on the docket Thursday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, accounting for the entirety of the third round.

The first Top 10 matchup of the week will see Andrey Rublev and Jannik Sinner battle it out on Court Rainier III, while Americans Taylor Fritz and Sebastian Korda will open play on Court Des Princes before teaming up for doubles later in the day.

Prior to Rublev’s evening match against Sinner, Top 5 seeds Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud feature on the show court.

View Schedule | View Singles Draw | View Doubles Draw

[5] Andrey Rublev vs. [9] Jannik Sinner (ITA)

After earning his first ATP Head2Head victory over Alex de Minaur in his Wednesday opener, Rublev now looks to beat Sinner in a completed match for the first time. The fifth seed moved past the Italian via an early retirement in Vienna in 2020 before Sinner scored a straight-sets victory in the Barcelona quarter-finals one year ago.

Sinner defeated Borna Coric and Emil Ruusuvuori to reach the Monte Carlo third round, his best performance in two Monaco appearances. The Italian is 18-3 on the season, reaching quarter-finals at the Australian Open, Dubai and Miami.

He’ll meet an opponent in equally stellar form, with Rublev posting a 19-4 mark on the season including titles in Marseille and Dubai. The 24-year-old also reached the Monte Carlo final in 2021, falling to Tsitsipas.

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[2] Alexander Zverev vs. [13] Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP)

Opportunity knocks for Zverev in Monte Carlo, with the German able to move within touching distance of Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev for the top spot in the ATP Rankings with a title run. Zverev would complete the box set of clay-court ATP Masters 1000 trophies with four more wins on the week, having already won Madrid twice and Rome once.

“This is the only Masters on clay I haven’t won yet, but I’m very motivated to do so,” Zverev said after his Wednesday win over Federico Delbonis. “I’m very motivated to play great tennis and I hope I can show that on court this week.”

While the World No. 3 got through his first clay-court match of the season with a straight-sets decision over Delbonis, Carreno Busta needed three sets for opening victories against Sebastian Baez and Alexander Bublik. Kazakhstan’s Bublik, who beat wild card Stan Wawrinka in the first round, retired late in the third set against the Spaniard on Wednesday.

Carreno Busta has a 9-5 record in Monte Carlo, reaching the last 16 on three prior occasions but never getting beyond that stage. Zverev had an identical 9-5 record in Monaco but reached the semi-finals in 2018.

[10] Taylor Fritz (USA) vs. Sebastian Korda (USA)

This all-American matchup on Court Des Princes will yield a first-time Monte Carlo quarter-finalist, with Fritz holding a 4-2 record at the event and Korda making his debut. Both men earned their way into the last 16 with a pair of hard-fought victories each.

Korda scored one of the results of the week in a 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 6-3 win in windy conditions over Carlos Alcaraz as he backed up a first-round win over Botic van de Zandschulp.

“It was nice to get the victory today,” Korda said after beating the Spanish Miami Open champion. “I stayed calm and believed in my returning. It was super tough, every time he threw up the ball it moved around. It was a crazy match.”

Fritz, the Indian Wells titlist and American No. 1, battled through three-setters against Monte Carlo native Lucas Catarina and Marin Cilic to return to the third round for the first time since 2019. 

Thursday’s meeting will be the first ATP Head2Head clash between the countrymen, who will team up to face Rohan Bopanna and Jamie Murray in the doubles second round later on Court 9.

Best Of The Rest

Fourth seed Ruud opens play on Court Rainier III against Grigor Dimitrov, followed by defending champion Tsitsipas taking on Laslo Djere.

On Court Des Princes, 13th seed Diego Schwartzman will take on Lorenzo Musetti following the all-American opener. The #NextGenATP Italian defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday to earn the second Top 10 win of his career; his first such win came against Schwartzman in Acapulco in 2021.

“Diego knows how to run and how to defend and attack, so it is going to be a really great battle,” Musetti previewed. “Diego was my first Top 10 win, so let’s see if I can double up the score. I hope to play a great match.”

Hubert Hurkacz will take on Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the third match on the Monte Carlo second stage, while doubles top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury close play against Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar.

The third-seeded doubles duo of Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos will also be in action on Court 2 against Daniel Evans and Schwartzman. That matchup follows Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. wild card David Goffin, with the Spaniard seeking to back up his second-round upset of Djokovic.

SCHEDULE – THURSDAY, APRIL 13

COURT RAINIER III start 11:00 a.m.
[4] C. Ruud (NOR) vs. G. Dimitrov (BUL)
[3] S. Tsitsipas (GRE) vs. L. Djere (SRB)
[2] A. Zverev vs. [13] P. Carreno Busta (ESP)
[5] A. Rublev vs. [9] J. Sinner (ITA)

COURT DES PRINCES start 11:00 a.m.
[10] T. Fritz (USA) vs. S. Korda (USA)
[12] D. Schwartzman vs. L. Musetti (ITA)
[11] H. Hurkacz (POL) vs. A. Ramos-Vinloas (ESP)
[1] R. Ram (USA) / J. Salisbury (GBR) vs. A. Nehar (URU) / G. Escobar (ECU)

COURT 2 start 12 noon
A. Davidovich Fokina vs. [WC] D. Goffin

Not Before 2:00 p.m. / After Suitable Rest
[3] M. Granollers (ESP) / H. Zeballos (ARG) vs. D. Evans (GBR) / D. Schwartzman (ARG)

COURT 9 start Not Before 1:00 p.m. / After Suitable Rest
R. Bopanna (IND) / J. Murray (GBR) vs. T. Fritz (USA) / S. Korda (USA)

Taking the court Wednesday evening as the highest-ranked player remaining at the Rolex-Monte Carlo Maters, second seed Alexander Zverev lived up to the billing with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Federico Delbonis. Seeking his sixth ATP Masters 1000 title, and his fourth on the European clay, the German was tested by his World No. 34 opponent but used a late surge to prevent any real drama on the show court.

Zverev has a big opportunity to move within striking distance of the top spot in the ATP Rankings following the early exit of Novak Djokovic and the injury absence of Daniil Medvedev. The German would inch within 125 points of Medvedev and 235 points of World No. 1 Djokovic with a sixth ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte Carlo.

“This is the only Masters on clay I haven’t won yet, but I’m very motivated to do so,” said Zverev, a 2018 semi-finalist at the event. “I’m very motivated to play great tennis and I hope I can show that on court this week.”

After losing the first four points of the match on the return, Zverev snapped into gear to win six straight games as he breezed through the opening set, dropping just three points on serve. Delbonis again started strongly in set two, breaking at love before a mid-set trade of breaks left him leading 3-2.

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As errors began to creep into the Zverev ground game, Delbonis had a point for 5-2 but could not convert, leaving the door open for his opponent. And Zverev took full advantage by winning 11 straight points to move within a game of victory. The Argentine saved a match point at 4-5 and another at 5-6, but netted a backhand at the third time of asking.

“I think just coming back, never letting him get too far ahead [was important],” Zverev assessed. “I broke him back twice, so that is helpful. If you’re down 4-1, 5-2, something like that, it’s not easy to come back.”

As in the opening set, Zverev found the range with his powerful strokes, keeping Delbonis pinned back in the rallies and using his 6-foot-6 frame to great effect in defense. Aggressive from the start, the German finished with 18 winners and 36 unforced errors while converting six of 11 break points.

Overall, he was happy with his performance in first clay-court match of the 2022 ATP Tour season: “I think it’s not bad for a change of surface. Also after Miami I was ill, so you have to take that into consideration a bit. But I’m happy with the win.

“Tomorrow I know that I have to play much better, and hopefully I can give myself the best chances.”

The World No. 3 will next face Pablo Carreno Busta for a spot in the quarter-finals, after the Spaniard advanced via a third-set retirement against Alexander Bublik. The German leads that ATP Head2Head series 2-0, coming back from two sets down in their most recent meeting in the 2020 US Open semi-finals.

#NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti captured the second Top 10 win of his career Wednesday, overcoming World No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-2, 7-6(2), to reach the third round at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

The 20-year-old produced a high-quality performance on Court Rainier III as he demonstrated great court-craft, sweeping backhands and firing forehands past the Canadian to improve to 2-1 in their ATP Head2Head series.

“I live here and practise here,” Musetti said in his on-court interview at the Monte Carlo Country Club. “It is nice to be here and play here in front of such a crowd. I am really happy. My backhand down the line was a key to many of my great shots. After a really good first set, he came back with such powerful serving, but I was calm and patient and that was the most beautiful thing about today.”

Musetti, who defeated then-World No. 9 Diego Schwartzman in Acapulco in 2021, has achieved some of the best results of his career on clay. The World No. 83 advanced to the semi-finals in Lyon last year, before he soared to the fourth round at Roland Garros, where he won two sets against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

Following his one-hour, 42-minute victory against Auger-Aliassime, Musetti will next meet 12th seed Schwartzman after the Argentine downed Marton Fucsovics, 6-0, 7-6(4).

“Diego knows how to run and how to defend and attack, so it is going to be a really great battle,” Musetti added. “Diego was my first Top 10 win, so let’s see if I can double up the score. I hope to play a great match.”

In a lively encounter in front of a raucous crowd, Musetti quickly found top gear as he caused Auger-Aliassime problems with his shotmaking. The Italian hit 10 winners and did not face a break point in the set, sealing the opener with a clean backhand volley.

_{Photo Credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour}

Musetti then showed everyone that his game has substance as well as style, battling back from 1-3 in the second set as he zoned in on Auger-Aliassime’s backhand with his heavy hitting.

The Italian timed the ball perfectly throughout, flicking passing shots against the stranded Canadian with regularity. While Auger-Aliassime was able to force a tie-break, Musetti was relentless as he continued to turn the tables in points, defending well from deep behind the baseline before striking the ball with deadly precision as he advanced.

Auger-Aliassime, who has never been beyond the second round in four appearances in Monte Carlo, has now won just one match since he captured the title in Rotterdam and reached the final in Marseille in February.

At 23 years old Casper Ruud is hardly an ATP Tour veteran, but the seventh seed had to use all his experience to nullify an energetic performance from #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune and reach the third round of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Wednesday.

“Holger is one of the young guys on Tour, he’s on the rise, and he was playing well today,” said the fourth seed after securing a 7-6(5), 7-5 victory on Court Rainier III. “He played much more aggressive than in [our] previous matches and he didn’t let me control the match as much as I would like to.”

The match was a far-cry from the pair’s two previous meetings, both won by Ruud in straight sets. The fourth seed clicked his powerful groundstrokes into gear just in time to recover a 3/5 deficit in the first-set tie-break before fighting back from 1-3 down to take a second frame that featured seven breaks of serve.

“He took the ball on the rise many times and was playing fast,” said Ruud. “He’s had some matches on the surface already this year and has been in a good flow, so I’m happy that I was able to stop him.”

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Despite the loss, 18-year-old Rune can take plenty of positives from a performance that featured some real moments of quality, a demonstration of the talent that has so many in the tennis world talking. The Dane moved to a career-high No. 79 in the ATP Rankings on Monday and notched a maiden win in Monte Carlo by beating Aslan Karatsev in the first round.

Ruud’s next assignment at the Monte Carlo Country Club will be a third-round clash with World No. 29 Grigor Dimitrov, as the Norwegian seeks to back up his run to a maiden ATP Masters 1000 final at the Miami Open presented by Itau just under two weeks ago.

Carlos Alcaraz suffered a rare setback at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Wednesday when he lost in three sets against Sebastian Korda. But the Spanish star was clear that the defeat had nothing to do with expectations.

“I’m a bit disappointed with myself. I had a lot of chances to be up in the match and close to winning, but these losses sometimes [are] good to live. You have to play matches,” Alcaraz said. “But I didn’t think about the expectations that the people have [for] me. I just focussed on me and what I have to do. But as I said, you have to play more matches on clay courts.”

All eyes were on the 18-year-old after his run to the Miami Open presented by Itau title. Alcaraz said that he was not physically and mentally fatigued leading into the year’s first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event.

“I’m ready to [go] back [to] training and focus on the next tournaments,” Alcaraz said. “It [was] a tough match, but I think mentally I’m ready to play these kind of matches, long matches, and tough matches. I mean, mentally and physically, I’m ready.”

Alcaraz admitted that his loss was moreso because of the transition from hard to clay.

“It’s never easy to get used to playing on clay courts. The first match is always tough, even when you are playing against Sebastian, a great player. Today was difficult conditions, the wind and everything,” Alcaraz said. “Now is time to be focussed on the next tournament and keep playing on clay.”

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The World No. 11 added: “It’s totally different to play on clay than on hard court. Points are longer, the slice [is used] much [more] than on hard court. But yeah, you have to adapt your game to clay courts. It’s totally different. More topspin, [the] points [are] longer.

“You have to play matches, play sets, to get used to playing on clay courts. Well, it’s tough, the transition [from] hard courts to clay courts.”

Despite the loss, Alcaraz is still 18-8 in tour-level matches on clay in his career. A year ago, he captured his first ATP Tour title on the surface in Umag and earlier this season he triumphed at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro. Next week, the teen will try to get back on track in Barcelona.