Alex de Minaur opens his Barcelona campaign against Austrian qualifier Sebastian Ofner this week, with the third seed stepping in after a clay-court run that carried him to the Monte Carlo quarterfinals last week. If de Minaur gets through, he will face either Hamad Medjedovic or Marco Trungelliti.
De Minaur was the first Australian in the Open era to reach a third Monte Carlo quarterfinal, beating Cameron Norrie and Alexander Blockx before losing to Valentin Vacherot. He is also defending points in Barcelona after reaching the last eight in 2025, when Carlos Alcaraz stopped him in the quarterfinals.
The matchup with Ofner is a familiar one. The pair have met once on tour, when de Minaur beat him in straight sets in Acapulco in 2024. Ofner, ranked world No.82, arrives as a qualifier looking for a deeper run against one of the tour’s most reliable movers on clay.
De Minaur’s own assessment of the moment was characteristically clipped. “It could be better, it could be worse, right?” he said after his Monte Carlo run, a fair summary of a week that still underlined how well he is tracking on the surface. Barcelona now gives him a chance to turn that form into another late-stage result.
Elsewhere this week, Daria Kasatkina returned from a hip injury that had kept her out since February and is set to face fifth-seeded American Ann Li at the Rouen Open. The world No.72 beat 16th-seeded Elise Mertens in Doha’s second round earlier this season and took a set off then-world No.2 Iga Swiatek in the round of 16 before her injury interrupted the spring swing. A win in Rouen would set up a second-round meeting with either Kamilla Rakhimova or Elvina Kalieva.
The week’s other notable doubles move comes from Ellen Perez, who will again partner Demi Schuurs at the WTA 500 Stuttgart Open. For de Minaur, though, the immediate task is simple: start fast in Barcelona and avoid giving Ofner a foothold in a draw that could quickly open up.
