World No 2 Carlos Alcaraz raced into the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open with a straight-sets win over Fabian Marozsan in Indian Wells. The Spaniard, bidding to turn out to be the primary participant to defend the title since Novak Djokovic in 2016, received 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 1 / 4.
Hungarian Marozsan, 24, got here into the match with a uncommon successful head-to-head document towards Alcaraz, having crushed him on the Rome clay final yr of their solely earlier assembly, one of many shock outcomes of the season.
The Wimbledon champion shortly went about taking his revenge, successful 4 video games in a row from 3-2 down to take the primary set. A solitary break for 4-2 within the second proved sufficient to wrap up the match and e book a last-eight assembly with Alexander Zverev.
“Honestly I was nervous before the match, playing against someone who beat you, let’s say easily, it was difficult for me to approach the game,” Alcaraz mentioned in his on-court interview. “But I’m happy with the win. Today I knew better what I needed to do than in Rome.” Zverev took down Australian Alex de Minaur after he misplaced the primary set earlier than coming again to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner continued his stellar begin to the yr, recording his 18th straight win in a victory over American Ben Shelton 7-6 (4), 6-1. Stefanos Tsitsipas, the eleventh seed from Greece, was on the tip of an upset as he slipped to a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Czech teen Jiri Lehecka.
In the ladies’s singles draw world No 1 Iga Swiatek will tackle former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki within the quarter-finals after taking little greater than an hour to beat Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva in straight units 6-1, 6-2. Wozniacki, from Denmark, defeated three-time grand slam winner Angelique Kerber in 90 minutes 6-4, 6-2, advancing to her first WTA 100 quarter-final since 2019 after returning to the tour.
After her match, Wozniacki mentioned she can have to play her “best tennis to compete” with Swiatek. “I think I have obviously commentated some of her matches,” she mentioned. “I know how she’s playing. Obviously she’s playing good tennis, playing powerfully. I practised with her as well a few times after I have come back, during the US Open as well. I know how she plays, but it’s one thing knowing how she plays and also playing against her in a full match.”
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Swiatek mentioned she has nice respect for Wozniacki. “I think she’s playing great even after the maternity break. She was fighting to come back. I have huge respect. I’m going to prepare like any other, but off the court she’s a great person.”
Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk defeated Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-1, whereas Russian Anastasia Potapova defeated Italian Jasmine Paolini 7-5, 0-6, 6-3.
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