Author: Barkha Roy
It was a disappointing day for Brazil, as the Brazilian-Canadian duo Luisa Stefani and Gabriela Dabrowski lost to top seeds Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff 4-6, 6-3, 10-5.
World number 3 and second seed at the Madrid Open, Daniil Medvedev, was beaten 7-6(1), 6-4 on Tuesday by former world number 14 Aslan Karatsev in the fourth round. By beating his Russian compatriot, Karatsev became only the fifth player to defeat Medvedev this season. He will face China’s Zhang Zhizhen, who has already upset several players in the competition.
Zhang, who saved three match points on the way to his 3-6, 7-6 (50), 7-6 (8) victory over eighth seed Taylor Fritz. The match between the Chinese and American pair also marked the 11th tie-break of the tournament, which is now an ATP Masters 1000 record, one more than the 10 won at the BNP Paribas Open in 2014 and 2018.
In another all-Russian contest, Karen Khachanov beat Andrey Rublev 7-6(8), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals. The match at the Estadio Manolo Santana between tenth seed Khachanov and his opponent was very tight, but Khachanov took control by recovering from a 4/6 deficit in the first set to win the tie-break.
Khachanov will face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who beat 13th seed Alexander Zverev in two sets 6-1, 6-2. The 19-year-old Spaniard dominated his opponent, winning points on both serve and return. He lost just eight points behind the serve, and managed to break the German’s serve four times, showing an attacking threat. Alcaraz also beat Zverev 21-9 respectively.
In other men’s results, Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated number 42 ranked Bernabe Zapata Miralles, 6-3, 6-1, while Jan-Lennard Struff beat Argentina’s Pedro Cachin 7-6 (7), 6-7 (7), 6-3 in a very tight match. Croatian Borna Coric also advanced to the last 16 of the Madrid Masters by beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(5). He will now face Germany’s Daniel Altmaier, who beat Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-3, 6-0.
In the women’s event, world number two Aryna Sabalenka beat Egypt’s Mayar Sherif 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the semi-finals in a very tight match. She will now face Greece’s Maria Sakkari, who beat Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-2.