De Minaur books Alcaraz clash in Barcelona quarters

Australia’s Alex de Minaur will take on world No.3 Carlos Alcaraz in a mouth-watering quarter-final clash at the Barcelona Open after both players cruised through their round-of-16 matches on Thursday.

De Minaur continued his strong 2025 clay-court campaign with a commanding 6-1, 6-2 win over British qualifier Jacob Fearnley.

The No.5 seed came in as a -769.23 favorite at leading tennis sportsbooks and showed his class from the outset, striking 13 winners and winning 62% of total points played.

It marked de Minaur’s fifth clay victory this season from six matches, and sets up his toughest test yet against defending champion Alcaraz.

The Spaniard also made light work of his round-of-16 opponent Laslo Djere, winning 6-2, 6-4 in just over 70 minutes.

Alcaraz dropped serve early in the second set but broke back twice to seal the win and progress to his fourth career meeting with de Minaur.

“I think as much as I can win in straight sets, it’s much better to save energy for the matches that I have coming forward,” Alcaraz said.

“I think I played great tennis, even better than the first round… really happy to find a great level again and hopefully keep going.”

Alcaraz leads their head-to-head 3-0 and is heavily favored to win again on home soil, priced at just -500 at top online betting sites.

De Minaur is a +350 outsider and pays +110 at Nags.bet to win at least a set. Two of their previous matches have seen the Aussie snatch a set before going down.

The winner of the Alcaraz vs. de Minaur clash will face either Stefanos Tsitsipas or French rising star Arthur Fils in the semi-finals. Tsitsipas – fresh off his Monte-Carlo title – goes into that match as a slight underdog.

In the bottom half of the draw, Karen Khachanov and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will battle for a semi-final spot, while Scandinavian stars Holger Rune and Casper Ruud meet in what is expected to be a bruising encounter.

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