Malta Independent

Carlos Alcaraz advances to quarterfin­als at Indian Wells. Jannik Sinner wins 18th straight match

-

Second‐ranked Carlos Alcaraz avenged a previous loss to Fabian Marozsan, winning 6‐3, 6‐3 on Tuesday to reach the quarterfin­als of the BNP Paribas Open as the top remaining seed in the men's draw.

A day after "lucky loser" Luca Nardi stunned No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round at In‐ dian Wells, Alcaraz advanced easily over the Hungarian who ousted him from the Italian Open in May. Marozsan was a qualifier and the No. 135 player in the world when he upset Alcaraz — then on the verge of taking the top spot in the rankings — 6‐3, 7‐6 (4) in the third round in Rome.

"Honestly, I was nervous before the match. I'm not going to lie," Alcaraz said. "Playing against someone that beat you. ... Today I knew what I had to do."

Australian Open champion Jan‐ nik Sinner beat Ben Shelton 7‐6 (4), 6‐1 later Tuesday for his 18th consecutiv­e victory. The third‐ranked Italian has won 15 matches in a row to start 2024, claiming titles at Melbourne and Rotterdam. It was the 150th hard‐court victory for the 22‐ year‐old Sinner, who became first player born in the 2000s to reach that milestone.

Sinner had a set point, up 5‐4 and 40‐30 in the first, before Shelton was saved by a net cord. It then took Sinner another 15 minutes to close out the first set; in the second, he went up 3‐0 and coasted to the victory.

Sinner advanced to the quar‐ terfinals to play Jiri Lehecka, a 6‐ 2, 6‐4 winner over Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Alcaraz, the defending cham‐ pion at Indian Wells, dropped the first set in his opening match this year but has lost just 12 games in the other six sets. He will face Alexander Zverev, who rallied after losing the first set to Alex de Minaur and won 5‐7, 6‐2, 6‐3.

On the women's side, top‐ seeded Iga Swiatek had a 6‐1, 6‐ 2 win over Yulia Putintseva, Car‐ oline Wozniacki beat Angelique Kerber 6‐4, 6‐2 in a contest be‐ tween two former No. 1‐ranked players, Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk fended off Anastasia Pavlyuchen­kova of Russia 6‐4, 6‐ 1, and Anastasia Potapova de‐ feated Jasmine Paolini 7‐5, 0‐6, 6‐3.

 ?? ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Malta