The ATP Tour heads to Barcelona and Munich this week; Andy Schooler picks out his ATP Barcelona best bets for the first-round action.
ATP Barcelona Tennis Tip: April 13th 2026
The usual search for potential underdog winners has this week thrown up Etcheverry in Barcelona. The Argentine has already played a lot of claycourt matches this season, winning the title in Rio. He has also been to the semis in Buenos Aires and the last eight in Houston, on both occasions losing to the eventual champion.
ATP Barcelona: Tomas Martin Etcheverry v Jack Draper
And, just last week in Monte Carlo, he gave Carlos Alcaraz a proper test, forcing the then-world number one to a deciding set. In contrast, this will be Draper’s first match on clay since last year’s French Open. Admittedly, the Briton did play well on the red dirt in 2025, most notably making the final of the Madrid Masters.
However, he is very much short on matchplay on this surface after a long-term injury and his recent training week (he opted for that rather than contesting Monte Carlo) may well have thrown up some new ideas for his game, ones which may take a while to get working to full effect. In addition, Etcheverry has won both previous meetings (one did come via retirement) so, all things considered, I’m happy to back the in-form Argentine at odds-against.
ATP Barcelona: Alexander Blockx v Yannick Hanfmann
This is basically a 50-50 match with the layers but my opinion is that too much attention has been paid to Blockx’s efforts in Monte Carlo. He did play well there, reaching the last 16 before losing to Alex de Minaur, but conditions will be considerably different in Munich where there’s plenty of altitude in play.
They are around 500m above sea level here and that means the ball will ‘fly’ through the air that bit more. Expect it to play faster than in Monte Carlo. That should help Hanfmann, who is something of a specialist in altitude conditions. He’s already shown that in 2026, making the final in Santiago. He was also going well in Marrakech recently (QFs reached) before illness struck. Of his last four tournaments, this will be Hanfmann’s third event at altitude and that schedule is no co-incidence.
Admittedly, Hanfmann’s Munich record isn’t as strong as some other altitude tournaments but he has made the quarter-finals before, while he beat Jakub Mensik at last year’s event and also took a set off Alex Zverev during one of the German’s three title runs here. Hanfmann also won the pair’s only previous meeting in straight sets and looks worth siding with to repeat the trick.
ATP Barcelona: Camilo Ugo Carabelli v Karen Khachanov
We have another match-up here which sees a player with some decent recent form up against one who has been out-of-sorts. Strangely though, it is the former who is the considerable outsider. Ugo Carabelli made the semi-finals in Marrakech a couple of weeks ago, while back in February he won on clay in Rosario on the ‘second division’ Challenger Tour.
He has yet to face Khachanov but has the claycourt game to frustrate the Russian, who is just 7-8 in 2026 so far. The most recent of those matches saw him well beaten, 7-5 6-2 by Arthur Rinderknech in Monte Carlo, hardly a player you’d associate with claycourt success. An upset is more than possible in this one.
ATP Barcelona & Munich: R1 Best Bets
Etcheverry to beat Draper @ 2.1 with kwiff
Hanfmann to beat Blockx @ 1.85 with kwiff
Ugo Carabelli to beat Khachanov @ 2.45 with kwiff
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