Thursday in Barcelona

This Thursday was the 3rd round of the Open Sabadell Atlantico Barcelona 2008. 6 Spanish players were still in the competition and at least one will be in the QF as Nadal is facing Feliciano Lopez.

Singles matches on Central Court didn't start before noon, so I first went to the Pista 1 to see the confrontation between Albert Montanes and Russian Mikhail Kukushkin. It took three sets to the Spaniard to seal the victory 6-3 3-6 6-3. Then I had the time to have a snack and headed to the central court to see David Ferrer and Nicolas Lapentti. David Ferrer who recently wins the title in Valencia is looking to win here in Barcelona as well. It was a long battle with a first set loss, before eventually reach the QF, winning 4-6 6-4 6-3.

On the same time on the Pista uno, David Nalbandian the n°3 seed was up against Swiss N°2 Stanislas Wawrinka. Nalbandian had an early break to lead 3-1 before the Swiss fired to win the match 6-3 6-1. It is the second loss in a row for Nalbandian against a Swiss player, and the 5th straight loss to Wawrinka.

An interesting match was coming up, 2004 Champion Tommy Robredo was facing last year finalist Guillermo Canas. There was no real battle as local hope Tommy Robredo had no trouble to clinched the first set 6-1 and then the second one 7-5.

Back on Central court, World n°2 Rafael Nadal was playing against his good friend Feliciano Lopez. For their 3rd meeting clay, Nadal played solid tennis to win 6-4 6-3 without facing a single break point. He will now face Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in the Quarters.

The other matches of today saw the victory of Nicolas Almagro against Mario Ancic and he will face Denis Gremelmayr who beat Tursunov 6-4 6-0.