Alcaraz, Rybakina stay on course for a double

MIAMI: Indian Wells champions Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina stayed on course to complete the ‘Sunshine Double’ with straight sets wins at the Miami Open on Tuesday.

Men’s World No.1 Alcaraz of Spain deployed his dynamic game to tame Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-4 and set up a quarter-final with Taylor Fritz, who eased past Holger Rune 6-3, 6-4 earlier in the day. Alcaraz showcased his sensational speed and reflexes to reach a drop shot for love-30 and broke Paul two points later for a 3-2 advantage.

An acrobatic overhead winner gave Paul a break point at 5-4 but Alcaraz recovered, unleashing a perfectly disguised drop shot of his own that the American could not chase down to secure the first set. In the second set, Paul, who came from behind to beat Alcaraz in their only previous meeting at last year’s Rogers Cup, fended off a match point while serving at 5-3.

But there would be no escape from Alcaraz, the top-seeded teenager letting out a mighty roar when Paul’s forehand landed out of bounds. “The key of that match was that I was playing to attack,” Alcaraz said. “I did not let him (Paul) play his game – attack and go to the net. I did those things first… I played a really complete match.”

At the Grandstand, Jannik Sinner breezed past Andrey Rublev, firing off more than two dozen winners with very few mistakes to win 6-2, 6-4. He will next face Emil Ruusuvuori, who defeated Botic van de Zandschulp 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.

On the women’s side, Rybakina enjoyed a businesslike 6-3, 6-0 quarter-final win to dispatch Martina Trevisan. The Kazakh deployed her clean ground strokes and feasted on the Italian’s soft second serve in the tight first set. It was all Rybakina in the second set, with an unreturnable serve on match point sealing the deal.

“I would say that, of course, maybe I am moving not as good as I was moving in Indian Wells but overall I think that I am trying to keep that level from Indian Wells,” Rybakina said. “There are a lot of ups-and-downs, but I think overall it is not bad.”