World No. 2, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, qualified Monday for the round of 16 of the Masters 1000 in Miami by dominating 6-2, 6-4 over Frenchman Gaël Monfils, a player 15 years his senior.
Monfils could never really hope to win this confrontation.
However, he gave himself a slight cause for celebration when he took Alcaraz’s serve while the latter was serving for the match, at 6-2, 5-1.
Although Monfils continued to be combative, forcing Alcaraz into spectacular defensive moves, the world number two was too strong for the Parisian.
There were many smiles, between the occasional grimaces from the Frenchman, currently 47th in the world, who enjoyed some entertaining exchanges where Alcaraz was able to show the finesse of his touch.
“He’s a great athlete,” Alcaraz said of Monfils, “he reads almost every ball, so I had to be patient but at the same time, with my forehand, my best shot, trying to move him on the short, to tire him out a little and give me the chance to dominate the point, go to the net, hit my best shot.”
Since losing the first set of his semi-final against the Italian Jannik Sinner in Indian Wells, Alcaraz has been untouchable, having not given up another set thereafter.
For a place in the quarters, his opponent will be the winner of the match between the American Ben Shelton, local favorite, and the Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
Earlier, the German Alexander Zverev, seeded No. 4, emerged from a delicate duel against the American Christopher Eubanks, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
The Australian Alex de Minaur (10th in the world) won 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 against the German Jan-Lennard Struff (25th).
De Minaur will face Fabian Marozsan in the next round after the Hungarian, ranked 57th in the world, continued his impressive run in the tournament by beating Australian Alexei Popyrin (45th) 7-5, 6-3.
2024-03-26 01:48:00
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