Alcaraz cruises into quarters
Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz sailed into the quarter-finals of the ATP-WTA Indian Wells Masters on Tuesday as he took revenge on Fabian Marozsan with a 6-3 6-3 victory.
The Spanish defending champion had a score to settle with the 58th-ranked Hungarian after losing their only other meeting at last year’s Rome Masters.
Alcaraz never let his opponent into the fourth-round match, breaking twice in the opening set and winning 12 of the first 13 points of the second.
The top seed reeled off 22 winners in 75 minutes to race into quarter-finals. After a slow start this season and an ankle roll several weeks ago in Brazil, the 20-year-old appeared on course to continue his chase to a possible second title here.
“I was nervous before the match, I’m not going to lie,” the winner said. “I was playing someone who beat me when I had no chances in the Rome match.
“It was difficult, but I’m happy with how I did. I knew what I had to do – something I did not do last time.
The world No.2 marked his 50th Masters victory with the defeat of Marozsan, and his ninth straight win in Indian Wells.
Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas failed to reach a second career quarter-final here, with the 11th seed losing 6-2 6-4 to rising Czech youngster Jiri Lehecka.
The upset was the youngster’s second in succession after dispatching fifth seed Andrey Rublev in the previous round.
Mohammad Nabi made a key 48 before taking five wickets as Afghanistan defeated Ireland by 117 runs on Tuesday to complete a 2-0 victory in the three-match one-day international series in Sharjah.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who made a hundred in the series opener, helped Afghanistan get off to another strong start with 51 off 53 balls before spooning a return catch to spinner Andy McBrine.
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi struck a second successive ODI half-century, making a sedate 69 to keep his team on for a competitive total after they started to lose their way. The 39-year-old Nabi offered key support but fell two runs short of his 50 as Ireland put the squeeze on Afghanistan in the final overs, restricting them to 236-9. Mark Adair finished with 3-51 while Barry McCarthy picked up two wickets.
Ireland lost opener Andy Balbirnie for one but appeared well set at 77-1 until skipper Paul Stirling holed out to long-off soon after reaching 50.
The two teams will stay in Sharjah to play three T20s on March 15, 17 and 18.