Teenage wildcard Carlos Alcaraz has ensured that Spaniards occupy all four semi-final berths at the Andalucia Open by toppling third seed Casper Ruud.
The 17-year-old Alcaraz, one of the brightest young stars on the tour, reached his first ATP Tour semi-final on Friday by making light work of Norway’s Ruud.
Alcaraz secured a last-four clash against Jaume Munar with his 6-2 6-4 victory in Marbella.
Unseeded Munar was made to fight much harder as he sealed a 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-4 win against unseeded Belarusian Ilya Ivashka in just under three hours.
Top seed Pablo Carreno Busta and Albert Ramos-Vinolas will battle it out in the other semi-final.
Carreno Busta cruised to a 6-4 6-0 win in his quarter-final against South Korea’s seventh seed Kwon Soon-woo, while fourth seed Ramos-Vinolas was pushed all the way in a 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 6-4 win against Slovakia’s Norbert Gombos.
Meanehile, at the Sardegna Open in Cagliari, second seed Taylor Fritz will play third seed Lorenzo Sonego in the last-four after defeating Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene.
Fritz, who recently climbed to No.1 in the US rankings, beat Bedene 6-3 6-4, while Italy’s Sonego fought back from 3-6 3-5 down to see off Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-3.
Georgia’s fourth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili outlasted German fifth seed Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5 4-6 6-3 and will play Laslo Djere in the other semi-final.
Unseeded Serbian Djere won 6-4 4-6 6-2 to end the breakthrough run of Italy’s teenage star Lorenzo Musetti, who had survived four match points against Britain’s Dan Evans in the previous round.