Teenage talent Carlos Alcaraz pulled off his second shock victory over world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas in their semi-final clash at the Miami Open.
The 18-year-old won in straight sets after almost two hours to finish 7-5 6-3 in a rematch of the pair’s meeting at the US Open, where the Spanish teenager also emerged victorious.
Alcaraz told ATP after the match: “It was really, really tough. He was playing unbelievable. All I can say is I fought until the last ball in the first set [to] come back.”
Alcaraz will face Miomir Kecmanovic in the quarter finals after Kecmanovic advanced with a 3-6 6-1 6-4 win over Taylor Fritz. Earlier, Nick Kyrgios lost his cool and picked up a game penalty as he crashed out of the fourth round to Jannik Sinner on Tuesday.
The combustible Australian vented his frustration towards umpire Carlos Bernardes during a tight first set, then lost the tie-break after being docked a point for smashing his racket and subsequently double-faulting.
Kyrgios was docked a game for smashing his racket again early in the second set – then posed for a selfie with a young fan who ran onto the court – before slipping to a 7-6 (3) 6-3 defeat.
Sinner’s win makes it less likely that Cameron Norrie will end the week in the world’s top 10 after the British number one succumbed 6-3 6-4 to Norway’s Casper Ruud.
Norrie needs Sinner, Taylor Fritz and Hubert Hurkacz to exit the tournament before he can be certain of celebrating the milestone for the first time in next week’s new world rankings.
Norrie, playing with heavy strapping on his left leg, was never able to reach the heights that had swept him to the quarter-finals or better in his last four tournaments.
He failed to fashion a single break-point opportunity against the Norwegian world number eight until he converted the last of three in the eighth game of the second set, preventing Ruud serving out for the match.
But by that point there was a sense of prolonging the inevitable and Ruud made no mistake at his second attempt to seal victory in just over one-and-a-half hours.
Daniil Medvedev moved within one more win of reclaiming the world number one spot as he moved into the quarter-finals with a 7-5 6-1 win over Jenson Brooksby.
Medvedev did not have it all his own way as he was forced to rally from 5-3 down in the first set before going on to book his place in the last eight in 80 minutes.
Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, former world number one Naomi Osaka passed through her quarter-final match against American Danielle Collins in straight sets.
It is the second time Osaka, now 77th in the world, has played and defeated Collins, who is ranked 11th. But when the pair first met – at Indian Wells in 2019 – Osaka was ranked first and Collins 25th.
Her 6-2 6-1 win set her up for a semi-final against Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
