Schedule Day Five Barcelona Open 2025 featuring Carlos Alcaraz v Alex de Minaur and Holger Rune v Casper Ruud

It is Quarter-Finals day at the 2025 Barcelona Open and there are some incredible ties upon us starting shortly as the Conde de Godo heads towards its conclusion. Of course led by Carlos Alcaraz who will aim to regain his title he won two years ago.

Alcaraz did not play last year and Casper Ruud who is also still involved scooped the crown and jumped in the swimming pool afterwards in a final win over Stefanos Tsitsipas. All three are involved in the line-up for the latter stages today.

It all begins though with one of the players of the moment in Alejandro Davidovich Fokina who has been spectacular as of late and the Spaniard on home soil is bringing the form that Alcaraz is also bringing right now. He faces Karen Khachanov for a shot at the semi-finals.

Then it is the turn of Casper Ruud v Holger Rune. A great and close tie on the face of it but on paper, it favours one side of the Scandinavian duo. In particular the current champion Ruud who holds a 6-1 Head to Head deficit against Rune.

They played also last year on clay at Acapulco and Ruud won in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. As well as in the Quarter-Finals of the 2023 French Open 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. While their ties are often in the latter stages of tournaments, Rune has yet to find the weapons to defeat Ruud.

But given the stranglehold that Andrey Rublev had over Davidovich Fokina of 5-0 which was promptly rendered irrelevant yesterday, it is hard to say whether it is a concern for Rune or whether it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of it all. It will all become clear later today.

Then it is the turn of the leading light in Carlos Alcaraz. The World No.2 was utterly fantastic yesterday in seeing off Laslo Djere in what was one of his best wins all year and after winning Monte-Carlo, he seems to be finding a regular stride again.

While Samuel Lopez has been a key influence already in the team of the French Open champion, he also has Juan Carlos Ferrero back in the fold and usually that features either puzzling defeats or superb wins so it is certainly the latter right now.

He faces Alex de Minaur in the Quarter-Finals who himself has been in some form as of late. His Monte-Carlo exploits have carried on to Barcelona. Having grown up in Spain, De Minaur despite being an Aussie feels at home on clay it seems and if he can switch on the second part of his roots, he can be a dual surface danger and could yet be an outside bet for Roland Garros.

Especially given the state of the men's game with Alcaraz shining bright on clay, Sinner only just returning and Zverev not taking his chance to be top dog. But will today be De Minaur's time to shine? He will be out for some vengeance as he has lost three times to Alcaraz. He has never sealed a win and lost in the Rotterdam final in February albeit in three sets. So an entertaining tie awaits but who does it favour?

Then it is last year's finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas who will take on Arthur Fils for a spot in the semi-finals. But it is a tie that very much favours the Frenchman over the higher seeded Greek.

Fils has been in expert form as of late and has been showing the tennis world why amid the rise of Draper and even Fonseca as potential future challengers for Sinner and Alcaraz, that he is here now and is winning.

He has a 2-0 Head to Head over Tsitsipas and both have been pretty one sided in Basel last year and Antwerp the year before. A player in real demon form against one who has shown form again in the past few weeks but also loves clay so it's no shock. Either way a great end to play.