Carlos Alcaraz beats Alexander Zverev to reach Madrid Open quarters Tennis News
Carlos Alcaraz ensured he would not be among the top seeds to cause an upset at the Madrid Open on Tuesday, winning from the start over Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-2 to secure his place in the quarter-finals. Just performed well.
After losing fourth-round matches to both second-seeded Daniil Medvedev and fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev at the clay-court tournament, Alcaraz defeated 13th-seeded Zverev on track to defend his title at home.
It was a rematch of last year’s Madrid final, which Alcaraz won comfortably against the former two-time champions in the Spanish capital.
“It’s amazing for me to play at the level I played today,” Alcaraz said. I feel really good right now and this match has given me a lot of confidence.”
Alcaraz didn’t concede any break chances against Zverev and converted four out of 10 break chances. The 19-year-old Spaniard finished with 21 winners and 12 unforced errors. Zverev only had nine winners and 22 unforced errors.
“It is not a normal result, Zverev is a great player and he has great shots, it would be more normal to have a tight match and I was ready for that,” said second-ranked Alcaraz. “I played well. I kept attacking and didn’t let him control me, especially on his serve. I played the whole match so that’s the result.
After winning the title in Barcelona, Alcaraz has won his 18th consecutive match in Spain.
Medvedev lost to 121st-ranked qualifier Aslan Karatsev, a fellow Russian, 7-6(1), 6-4. It was Karatsev’s first win over a top-10 opponent since 2021.
Medvedev complained about the small dimensions of the Arantxa Sánchez Vicario court, saying that he should have played as the No. 2 seed on Center Court.
Karatsev is a former No. 14 in the world and has won his last three Tour titles in Sydney last year. He was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in 2021.
Rublev lost 7–6(8), 6–4 to his doubles partner and fellow Russian Karen Khachanov. Khachanov saved two set points in the tiebreaker in his first win against a top-10 opponent on clay since 2019.
Khachanov, ranked 12th, believed his tiebreaker was crucial after losing to Rublev in Monte Carlo three weeks earlier, when Rublev won his first Masters 1000 title.
Daniel Altmaier defeated Jaume Munar 6-3, 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals.
The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification.
