Top seed Carlos Alcaraz cruised into the fourth round of the Miami Open with a dominant 6-2, 6-4 victory over French veteran Gael Monfils on Monday. The Spaniard’s power and precision proved too much for Monfils, who was hampered by an ankle injury sustained in the fifth game.
Despite the injury, Monfils displayed his trademark defensive prowess, forcing Alcaraz to showcase his deftness of touch. However, the world number two’s relentless pressure eventually wore down the Parisian, who managed to break Alcaraz’s serve once before the Spaniard closed out the match.
“He’s a great athlete,” Alcaraz said of Monfils. “He reads almost every ball, so I had to be patient. But I tried to move him around the court with my forehand, get him tired, and give myself the chance to dominate the point.”
In other action, fourth seed Alexander Zverev overcame a spirited challenge from American Christopher Eubanks, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-3. Zverev broke Eubanks’ serve when the American was serving for the set at 5-3 and then broke early in the second set to take control.
“He came out swinging and didn’t give me chances to be aggressive,” said Zverev. “I tried to mix it up from the baseline, but he was playing well and not giving me many unforced errors.”
Australian Alex De Minaur also advanced with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 victory against 24th seed Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany. De Minaur will face Fabian Marozsan in the next round after the Hungarian continued his impressive tournament with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Alexei Popyrin.
