MIAMI: Top seed Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the fourth round of the Miami Open with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over French veteran Gael Monfils at Hard Rock Stadium on Monday.
The 37-year-old Monfils was coping well with the talented Spaniard’s power play until he injured his ankle in the fifth game.
While Monfils continued bravely and produced some wonderful defensive shots from Alcaraz, the world number two was too much for the Parisian.
There were plenty of smiles between the occasional twitch from Monfils, who enjoyed a fun rally where Alcaraz could show off his deft touch.
With the result looking like a formality, Alcaraz let off the gas and Monfils was able to break for the first time to cut the deficit to 5-3.
Monfils then held serve with a brilliant cross court winner before Alcaraz wrapped up the business to book a place in the fourth round against either Lorenzo Musetti or Ben Shelton.
“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 I tried to move him around the court with my forehand, my best shot, to tire him out a little bit and give myself a chance to dominate point, get to the net and hit your best shot.
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“That’s what I was trying to do in the match and it worked pretty well,” he added.
Earlier, fourth seed Alexander Zverev of Germany passed a tough test against American Christopher Eubanks as he won 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
Zverev provided a vital break with Eubanks serving for the set at 5-3 before breaking early in the second for a 3-0 lead and seeing himself cruise to victory.
“He came out swinging and not giving me a chance to be aggressive. I was trying to mix it up from the baseline,” Zverev said.
“I was surprised how well he played from the baseline, he didn’t give me many unforced errors. He does a lot, but usually he makes a lot of mistakes, but he was not lacking today, especially in some stages of the first set,” he added.
Australia’s Alex De Minaur advanced with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 win against 24th seed Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany.
De Minaur will face Fabian Marozsan in the next round after the Hungarian continued his impressive run with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Alexei Popyrin.
