The action is heating up in Barcelona, with two-time finalist and No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas taking on Sebastian Korda in round two on Wednesday. Defending champion Casper Ruud battles qualifier Hamad Medjedovic.
(3) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Sebastian Korda
This is a tough draw for American Sebastian Korda. Stefanos Tsitsipas is one of the more successful clay-courters of the past five years and he’s been strong enough in Barcelona to make the final in both 2023 and 2024. The Greek star is having a good if not spectacular year so far with a title in Dubai to offset a disappointing first -ound ouster at the Australian Open.
The good news for Korda is that he just beat Tsitsipas last month. The bad news is that it wasn’t on clay and the Florida native had home-court advantage in Miami. If this was another hard-court tournament, I might give the edge to Korda–but Tsitsipas on clay is a force to be reckoned with, regardless of what’s happening with his game otherwise.
Korda is a solid clay-court player in his own right and he might even nab a set, but Tsitsipas is just too good in Barca for this to be a probable upset.
Cheryl pick: Tsitsipas in 3
Ricky pick: Tsitsipas in 2
(2) Casper Ruud vs. (Q) Hamad Medjedovic
While he hasn’t reached Rafael Nadal standards of dominance, Casper Ruud is something of a clay-court machine. All but one of his 12 titles have come on the dirt, including a victory at this very tournament last year. The Norwegian doesn’t have any titles yet in 2025, but the European clay season has only just started in earnest. He was 13-5 coming into this week, a tidy if slightly underwhelming record. Ruud beat another qualifier, Daniel Elahi Galan, in the first round this week.
Hamad Medjedovic is enjoying his first ATP Tour-level breakthrough. The world No. 72 got through qualifying and upset France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round. Following a poor 2024, Medjedovic came out of basically nowhere in February to make the final in Marseille; he’s still ranked too low to earn direct entry to most bigger events, but he is knocking on the door.
Ruud is a prohibitive favorite in Wednesday’s match, but Medjedovic has the benefit of being a largely unknown quantity for most of the top players. Look for the Serb to make the match competitive for a set.
Cheryl pick: Ruud in 2
Ricky pick: Ruud in 2