Indian Wells (USA), March 17 Top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain beat Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliasim 6-4, 6-4 for the second straight season Qualified to the semi-finals of the Indian Wells Masters.
Alcaraz, who picked up his first win in four matches against the 10th-ranked Canadian, continued to gain momentum in his bid for a maiden Indian Wells title.
“Today, the goal was to stay there. I knew I was going to have a chance. I had to try and take it. Probably one of my best games of the season in 2023. I’m really happy and want to move on ,” Alcaraz was quoted as saying by the ATP Tour.
In his final encounter with Auger-Aliassime, Alcaraz saw only one break point and was unable to convert. He changed the script of that narrative on Thursday, earning 12 break points and converting three to keep his 22-year-old opponent out.
The Spaniard won 30 percent of his first-serve returns and 58 percent of his second-serve returns and saved three of the four break points he faced to seal a tight match in two hours.
The win was Alcaraz’s first against a top-10 opponent since his U.S. Open final win over Casper Rudd, putting him within two wins of returning to the top of the ATP rankings.
The 19-year-old Alcaraz, now 13-9 against top-10 opponents, is looking to become just the second man to win at least three ATP Masters tournaments as a teenager, having won Miami and Madrid last year. His compatriot Rafael Nadal has won six matches.
He next meets Jannik Sinner, the pair’s fifth meeting and first since their epic encounter in New York, in which he saved Scored a match point to win the second-longest match in U.S. Open history.
Earlier, the 21-year-old Sinner made history for Italy with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over defending champion Tyler Fritz, ending the United States’ nine-game winning streak at Indian Wells and finishing in the Participated in the Masters 1000 for the second time.
Sinner and Alcaraz had parted ways in their previous four encounters, with the Spaniard winning two of their hard-court encounters.
–IANS
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