Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz both had second-set stumbles on Thursday in their race for the No. 1 ranking, but recovered to reach the last eight of the Monte Carlo Masters, while in Austria, Taiwan’s Liang En-shuo reached the semi-finals in the women’s doubles at the Linz Open.
Sinner, who said he ran out of steam in the second set, beat the wildly erratic Tomas Machac, 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.
Alcaraz followed Sinner on to the center court and his match went to a similar pattern before he beat Tomas Etcheverry 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
Photo: AFP
Alcaraz could lose the No. 1 ranking to Sinner, who was finishing a ban last year and has no ranking points to lose this week. The Italian came into Monaco after winning the Masters tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.
On Thursday, Sinner galloped through the first set, but slowed in the second, allowing Machac to hit his way back into the match.
“I was struggling a little bit, was a bit tired,” Sinner said. “I felt great before the match, in the second set I struggled a bit with trying to find the right energy. This can happen. I tried to push myself through, which I’ve done.”
Machac squandered two set points on serve at 5-4 in the second, but then romped through the tie-break.
That ended Sinner’s record streak of 36 straight sets in 1000-level events, but he stayed cool to stretch his run of Masters wins to 19.
Even with his opponent struggling, the Czech kept flailing for winners. He handed Sinner the third-set initiative when wild hitting handed the Italian a break to love in the third game.
Sinner held serve twice before breaking to love to wrap up victory in 2 hours, 1 minute.
His quarter-final opponent, sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, needed to expend less energy. The Canadian was leading Casper Ruud 7-5, 2-2 when the Norwegian retired.
Alcaraz also blazed through the first set, but in the second he made 23 unforced errors.
“I had the chance to break his serve in the second set and I didn’t take it and every time you don’t take the opportunities at this level you have to run back,” said Alcaraz, who next faces Alexander Bublik.
Kazakh Bublik beat Jiri Lehecka 6-2, 7-5.
Earlier, 19-year-old Joao Fonseca reached the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000 event for the first time when he strode to a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win over Matteo Berrettini.
The Brazilian’s last-eight opponent is to be world No. 3 Alexander Zverev, who dispatched Belgian Zizou Bergs 6-2, 7-5.
At the Intersport Arena Linz, Liang and Chinese partner Yang Zhaoxuan defeated Makoto Ninomiya of Japan and Britain’s Maia Lumsden 6-2, 6-3 at the 1,049,083 euro (US$1.23 million) red clay, indoor event.
They were to play Czech duo Jesika Maleckova and Miriam Skoch in the last four after press time last night.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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