Cameron Norrie, Karen Khachanov and Casper Ruud among seeds to crash out in Barcelona

While the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz made it safely through to the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open on Thursday, a number of other title hopefuls weren't as fortunate.

Francisco Cerundolo was responsible for the biggest upset of the day as he defeated third seed Casper Ruud 7-6(5), 6-3.

Cerundolo will meet 12th seed Daniel Evans in Friday's quarter-finals after the Briton's impressive 6-3, 6-4 win against Karen Khachanov.

Clay has traditionally been by far Evans' weakest surface but he has improved on it a lot over the last couple of years, even defeating Novak Djokovic in Monte-Carlo in 2021.

Here he produced his next best win on the surface by ranking, upsetting world number 11 Karen Khachanov to extend his record against the Russian to 4-0.

There was not such good news for British number one Cameron Norrie, who was in impressive form in the opening set against talented young Italian Musetti before fading to a 3-6 6-4 6-1 loss.

Musetti, who defeated Novak Djokovic in Monte-Carlo last week, called the trainer at the end of the first set and had to work harder to hold his serve in the second than Norrie.

But the world number 13 was unable to take either of two break points at 4-4 and then played a poor game to drop serve before being outplayed in the decider.

Musetti next faces a rematch with his fellow 21-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner, who he lost to in Monte-Carlo.

In one of the final matches of the day, the tournament's top seed Carlos Alcaraz eased into the quarter-finals with a 6-3 7-5 victory over countryman Roberto Bautista Agut.

There was no stopping second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas either as he dispatched a potentially tricky opponent in Denis Shapovalov 6-3 6-2.

Alcaraz played a remarkable shot during the first set to reach set point. He slid to hit a backhand slice that surprised Bautista Agut, who was expecting to win the point with his overhead shot.

"It was lucky. Honestly I didn't expect to make that shot," Alcaraz said afterwards. "I just closed my eyes, [swung] the racquet. It was a lot of luck that I made that shot. Something like that is so special."

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