Top seed Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the fourth round of the Miami Open with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over French veteran Gaël Monfils at Hard Rock Stadium on Monday.
Monfils, 37, adapted well to the talented Spaniard’s power play until he injured his ankle in the fifth game.
While Monfils continued valiantly, drawing superb defensive strikes from Alcaraz, the world number two was too much for the Parisian.
There were plenty of smiles, between the occasional grimaces from Monfils, who enjoyed some entertaining exchanges where Alcaraz was able to show off his touch skills.
With the result looking like a formality, Alcaraz eased off the gas and Monfils was able to break for the first time to reduce the deficit to 5-3.
Monfils then held his serve with a brilliant cross-court winner before Alcaraz wrapped up his business to book a place in the fourth round against Lorenzo Musetti.
“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, I try to move him around the court, tire him out a little bit and give myself the chance to dominate the point, to go to the net, to get my best shot.
“That’s what I was trying to do during the match and it worked pretty well,” he added.
Alcaraz said he enjoyed playing under the lights in front of stars such as Brazilian soccer player Neymar and NBA star Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat.
But he expects a much tougher test from Musetti, who won a thrilling battle against American Ben Shelton in front of a raucous crowd on Butch Buchholz’s court 6-4, 7-6 (7/5 ).
“I know Lorenzo is a really talented player, so it’s a very difficult question,” Alcaraz said.
“But I’m really happy with the level I’m playing at, with the performance I’m bringing on the pitch,” he added.
Earlier, fourth-seeded German Alexander Zverev passed a tricky test against American Christopher Eubanks, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
Zverev made a crucial break as Eubanks served for the set at 5-3 before breaking early in the second to lead 3-0 and cruise to victory.
“He came out with a lot of momentum and didn’t give me a chance to be aggressive. I tried to mix things up from the baseline,” Zverev said.
“I was surprised how well he played from the baseline, not causing me many unforced errors. He does a lot but usually misses a lot, but today he didn’t miss, especially in some stages of the first set,” he added.
Zverev will face 15th seed Karen Khachanov, who was pushed all the way by Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (7/5).
Khachanov finally sealed victory on his fifth match point, repeating his victory against the Argentine in the quarterfinals in Miami last year.
Australian Alex De Minaur followed up with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 victory against German Jan-Lennard Struff, 24th seed.
De Minaur will face Fabian Marozsan in the next round after the Hungarian continued his impressive tournament run with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Alexei Popyrin.
Hubert Hurkacz beat American Sebastian Korda 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-3 and will face Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov who beat German Yannick Hanfmann 6-0, 6-0.
The losses of Korda, Shelton and Eubanks leave the United States without a representative in the fourth round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
