Stefanos Tsitsipas, who reached his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final in Barcelona on Thursday, is only 19 years old, a leading candidate to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, where eight of the world’s best 21-and-under players will compete from 6-10 November.

But the 6’3” right-hander is also leading his entire country. For nearly everything the Greek achieves on the ATP World Tour, he becomes the ‘first’ or the first in decades’ time from Greece to celebrate the milestone.

Last October, Tsitsipas became the first Greek to enter the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings and the first Greek semi-finalist (2017 Antwerp) in 44 years (Kalogeropoulos, 1973 Des Moines). And after his start to the European clay-court season this year, Tsitsipas is well on his way to becoming the first Greek to enter the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings.

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“I’m very happy to represent my country on the biggest stages, at the biggest tournaments,” Tsitsipas told ATPWorldTour.com. “It’s very satisfying to help tennis grow up in Greece.”

The 19-year-old advanced to the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, beating 2017 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas, at his home tournament, 6-4, 7-5. The Spaniard is the second clay-court stalwart that Tsitsipas has swept past this week at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament. The Greek eliminated seventh seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 in the second round.

“It’s the surface. I feel very confident when I step on the dirt. I always show my best tennis on this surface,” Tsitsipas told ATPWorldTour.com. “I really hope the confidence keeps going. I’m very satisfied with my tennis so far.”

Tsitsipas grew up playing on the red dirt in Athens. He learned how to construct points on clay from a coach who emphasised attacking and approaching the net more so than using heavy spin to win matches.

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Recent practices with Patrick Mouratoglou have also helped. Tsitsipas splits his training between his home Athens and the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Nice.

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“The things he told me have changed my game until now. I’m playing on a completely different level and when you play on a level where you feel that confident and so sure of yourself, nothing can stop you,” said Tsitsipas, who is also coached by his father, Apostolos Tsitsipas, and was coached by his mother, Julia Salnikova, a former professional player in the Soviet Union.

This season has marked quite the turnaround for Tsitsipas, who struggled to win a tour-level match for much of 2017. The teenager dropped his first eight tour-level contests before beating Russian Karen Khachanov at the Rolex Shanghai Masters last October. Tsitsipas had earned his opportunities, too: He qualified an ATP-best eight times last year.

But since Shanghai, Tsitsipas has reached one semi-final (Antwerp 2017), three ATP World Tour quarter-finals (2018 Doha, Dubai, Barcelona) and has played better than .500 tennis (12-10).

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The runs have put him in great position to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals. After his trip to the Barcelona quarter-finals, he’s projected to climb to fifth place in the ATP Race To Milan, which will determine seven of the eight players in Milan. The eighth will be chosen by wild card.

Tsitsipas got a taste of the new event last year when he served as an alternate. “All the NextGenATP players are giving me motivation to do better,” he said. “I see them, the way they do things and I want to do the same things they do. I want to stay high in the ATP Rankings and follow their footsteps.”

See Who Tsitsipas Is Chasing In The ATP Race To Milan

Juan Martin del Potro will compete at The Queen’s Club in 2018, the Fever-Tree Championships announced Thursday.

Del Potro joins a lineup full of stars in London, including World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and five-time tournament winner Andy Murray.

The World No. 6 has been on a tear this season, winning 15 matches in a row to claim titles in Acapulco and Indian Wells — where he earned his maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title — before falling in the Miami semi-finals against eventual champion John Isner. The 2013 Queen’s Club quarter-finalist will be playing at the event for the fifth time in June.

The Argentine’s next tournament is in two weeks at the Mutua Madrid Open. The 29-year-old is also scheduled to compete the following week at another ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Rome, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

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Italian Andreas Seppi, the No. 8 seed at the Gazprom Hungarian Open, was down a set and a break in his first-round match in Budapest. And after surviving that battle, he has rode the momentum on Thursday into his second tour-level quarter-final of the season.

Seppi beat former World No. 8 Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-2 in 63 minutes, losing just three points on his first serve. Youzhny remains three victories away from No. 500 in his career.

The 34-year-old Seppi’s efforts in Hungary come on the heels of a strong performance last week when in Monte-Carlo, where he qualified before winning two three-setters to advance to the Round of 16 at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, reaching that round for the second time in 12 appearances. Seppi also reached the semi-finals at Rotterdam in February before losing to eventual champion Roger Federer.

In the next round, Seppi will face a surprise opponent. #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov lost his third consecutive match, as Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili ousted the 19-year-old 6-2, 6-4 in 69 minutes.

“I think Nikoloz played really well today,” Shapovalov said. “He came out firing. I had my chances early on and didn’t take advantage and then he took advantage. After that it was kind of hard to get a rhythm.”

Before advancing to the quarter-finals two weeks ago in Marrakech, Basilashvili had lost seven of his past eight tour-level matches. But with his performance in Morocco and his upset of Shapovalov, the 26-year-old has now reached two straight quarter-finals.

Top seed Lucas Pouille begins his title defence Thursday against Australian John Millman.

Did You Know?
Andreas Seppi has finished inside the Top 100 of the year-end ATP Rankings for 13 consecutive years.

Austria’s Dominic Thiem recorded his 12th win in 15 clay-court matches on Thursday for a place in the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell quarter-finals.

The third seed and last year’s finalist, one of the best performers in clay-courts matches over the past two years, didn’t have things all his own way in a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory over Slovakian lucky loser Jozef Kovalik in one hour and 44 minutes.

Thiem, with a 21-5 on the season, which includes his ninth ATP World Tour crown at the Argentina Open (d. Bedene), will now challenge #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas or No. 10 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain.

World No. 146 Kovalik broke for a 3-2 lead, but Thiem won the next three games. Thiem won five of the first six points in the tie-break, closing out on his fourth set point opportunity. Thiem carried the momentum into the second set, including service breaks in the first, fifth and seventh games.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, the 10-time champion, takes on fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez later today, while second-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov meets Malek Jaziri of Tunisia.