Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas open Barcelona bids in quest to halt further ranking slides

Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas faced off in last year’s Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell final a week after the Greek took their championship clash in Monte Carlo.

Things are a little different 12 months later, with both coming in off the back of less-than-ideal starts to their clay season.

In Monte Carlo, Ruud missed two match points during his round-of-16 loss to Alexei Popyrin and Tsitsipas suffered his first defeat in six meetings with Lorenzo Musetti following a quarterfinal exit. The two now seek strong showings in Barcelona ahead of the upcoming pair of ATP Masters 1000 events to ensure their rankings don’t continue trending in the wrong direction ahead of the all-important French Open seeding.

On Tuesday, each opened their campaigns in positive fashion. Defending champion Ruud defeated qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan, 6-4, 6-3, as the No. 2 seed did not face a break point throughout the contest.

The Norwegian is down to No. 10 in the latest rankings and an early departure this week could see him drop outside of the Top 15 depending on the results of his peers in Spain and at Munich's BMW Open. A meeting with Hamad Medjedovic stands as Ruud’s next challenge.

As for Tsitsipas, he fell eight spots to No. 16 and began the week at No. 19 in the live rankings. The 26-year-old blew past Reilly Opelka, 6-2, 6-2, to confidently launch his campaign. Another American opponent, Sebastian Korda, awaits with a quarterfinal spot at stake.

Ruud is in the same quarter of the draw as sixth-seeded Holger Rune, while Tsitsipas is projected to meet seventh seed Arthur Fils in the last eight.