The uber-consistent Alex de Minaur improved to 20-7 for the season with a scrappy straight-sets victory over Tomas Etcheverry.
2025 ATP Tour
ATP 500
Barcelona Open
Real Club de Tenis Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (Outdoor Clay)
Selected Round of 16 Matches- 17th April 2025
Alex de Minaur (5) 0.09 vs Jacob Fearnley 6
Both players struggled to get things going in the slow conditions, with de Minaur’s famed athleticism ultimately giving him the edge. The world No.7 has been a bastion of consistency these last few years, reaching eight ATP Finals since the beginning of 2023
(and four consecutive Grand Slam quarters). He enjoyed a solid start to the season, reaching the Aussie Open quarterfinals before a runner-up finish in Rotterdam. He went a bit quiet after that but roared back with an excellent semifinal run at last week’s Monte-Carlo Masters (his best clay-court Masters 1000 result to date). De Minaur is yet to reach a clay-court final in his career. He tends to counterpunch quite often, preferring to redirect power. He has been working on creating more of his own power and perhaps that attributed to this Monte-Carlo showing.
British No.2 Jacob Fearnley has already produced a PB this week, winning his first ATP Tour main draw match with a classy straight-sets win over Roberto Carballes Baena. The Scot entered the main draw as a lucky loser and looked surprisingly comfortable against Carballes Baena, hitting 33 winners to the Spaniard’s 11. The 23-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise of late. He was ranked outside the top 600 a year ago, but won four ATP Challenger titles last year to sneak his way into the top 100 in the world rankings. A standout performer on the US collegiate scene, Fearnley looks to dominate on serve, using his whippy forehand to pummel opponents.
The Verdict: De Minaur to win in straight-sets at 0.33- This will be their first career meeting. There is no way to sugarcoat this: de Minaur should waltz past Fearnley. Fearnley’s aggressive style isn’t ideally suited to these surfaces. His potent serve will be diminished and the ‘Speed Demon’ should be able to easily dictate proceedings from the back of the court.
