Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the ATP 500 in Barcelona with a wrist injury suffered in his match against Otto Virtanen, leaving the draw without the home star and reshaping the path through the clay-court event.
Andrey Rublev, Lorenzo Sonego, Arthur Fils, Brandon Nakashima, Lorenzo Musetti and Corentin Moutet all moved deeper into the tournament before the quarterfinal round, with Rublev due to meet Sonego in Barcelona for the sixth time and Fils set to face Nakashima in a meeting the American led 2-1 head-to-head.
Rublev advanced by beating Mariano Navone in straight sets, while Sonego came through a three-set win over Pedro Martinez in his first outing since Melbourne. Fils reached the next round by edging Terence Atmane in a final-set tiebreak, and Nakashima responded with a straight-sets win over Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Musetti also kept moving, defeating Martin Landaluce 7-5, 6-2 after a post-Australian Open injury layoff, and Moutet booked his place by beating Ignacio Buse 6-4, 6-4.
The Alcaraz withdrawal carried the biggest weight in Barcelona because none of the last five finalists at the event will be involved. That reality gave the day a different shape: the tournament lost its leading local attraction, and the bracket suddenly looked more open than it had when play began.
Rublev still holds the overall edge against Sonego, but the Italian has won both of their previous clay-court meetings, making their sixth matchup one of the more interesting collisions left in the draw. Musetti, meanwhile, has already beaten Moutet twice in straight sets, which gives his side of the bracket a clear precedent as he tries to build on a steady return from injury.
For Barcelona, the next stage now belongs to the players who have kept winning, not the one the crowd most expected to see. Alcaraz’s exit changed the story, and the rest of the field now has a better chance to claim it.