jannik senses

Madrid. The Italian Jannik Sinner and the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, numbers 2 and 3 in the world, suffered more than necessary this Tuesday in their respective matches to achieve their ticket to the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters 1000.

Sinner came back against Russian Karen Khachanov (number 17) 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Seeded number 1 in the absence of the Serbian Novak Djokovic, the Italian won in just over two hours after conceding the first round, and this year he has accumulated 28 victories and only two defeats.

The winner of the Australian Open will face the winner of the duel between the Norwegian Casper Ruud (number 6) and the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime (number 35) in the quarterfinals.

For his part, Alcaraz, back on the court in Madrid after a forearm injury, managed to beat German Jan-Lennard Struff (number 24) 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7 /4), in a replay of the final of this same tournament in 2023.

Alcaraz seemed to have the match under control at the beginning of the second set, after having taken the first and having broken his rival’s first serve. But Struff, basing his game on an increasingly effective serve, began to destabilize the Spaniard and managed to tie at the end of a tie-break decided on a tight ace.

In the third set, Alcaraz seemed to have regained the match’s tents, and had three match points during his service when he led 5-3… but again the German scrambled and the match was decided in a new tie-breakwon this time by Alcaraz.

The double Grand Slam winner, whose participation in Madrid was a doubt until the last moment, had won his two previous rounds in two sets, in just over an hour.

If Alcaraz manages to win on the Madrid clay court on May 5, the day he will turn 21, he will become the first tennis player to win the Madrid Masters 1000 three consecutive times.

Swiatek also rides

In the next round, the Spaniard will look for a ticket to the semifinals against Andrey Rublev, world number 8, who defeated the Dutch Tallon Griekspoor (number 25) 6-2 and 6-4. The Russian, who arrived in Madrid after suffering four consecutive defeats, added his third victory without conceding a single set.

His compatriot, Daniil Medvedev (number 4), will also be in the quarterfinals.

In a duel between “clay-court enemies”, the Russian beat the Kazakh Alexander Bublik (number 18) 7-6 (7/3) and 6-4 and will play in the quarterfinals against the local idol Rafael Nadal or the Czech Jiri Lehecka (number 31), whose match will be played in a night session.

In the women’s draw, the Polish world number 1 Iga Swiatek suffered against the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (number 14), coming back from a set down to reach the semifinals, after winning 4-6, 6-0 and 6-2.

Despite suffering the first break of the match in the fourth game, Haddad Maia reacted and broke his rival’s serve to take the first set in an hour of play.

Swiatek took advantage of the Brazilian’s logical relaxation to give her a rosco (6-0) and put pressure on Haddad Maia who once again lost her first two serves in the decisive set.

With 4-1 down, the Brazilian was left without the power to react and surrendered the match in the first match ball that Swiatek had.