Miami Open: Alcaraz moves past Gael Monfils to reach last 16

Carlos Alcaraz halted a late-match surge from Gael Monfils to advance to the fourth round of the Miami Open presented by Itau Monday night as he took another step towards completing the coveted ‘Sunshine Double’.

Despite the veteran Frenchman broke the 20-year-old as he served for the match at 5-3 and then crushed an explosive forehand winner in the following game to make the World No. 2 Alcaraz closed it out 6-2, 6-4 at the second time of asking with a clinical love hold, capped by a confident serve/volley play on his first match point.

“He’s a great athlete. He reaches almost every ball,” said the No. 2 man in the PIF ATP Rankings. “But at the same time, with my forehand, my best shot, I tried to move him around the court, tried to get him tired a little bit and give myself the chance to dominate the point, trying to go to the net and hitting my best shots.”

The entertaining match was watched by the likes of Neymar, Jimmy Butler and Juan Martin del Potro, with Alcaraz eager to light it up in front of the star-studded crowd.

Alcaraz’s will next take the stage against Lorenzo Musetti, after the Italian’s 6-4, 7-6(5) victory against Ben Shelton closed Monday’s ATP Tour play in Miami.

Alex de Minaur continued his strong start to 2024 by scoring his tour-leading 19th match win of the year Monday at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

The Aussie earned a 7-6(3), 6-4 victory against 24th seed Jan-Lennard Struff to advance to the fourth round for the first time at the ATP Masters 1000, matching his Indian Wells run.

Next up is a chance for revenge against Fabian Marozsan, who beat him last year at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. The Hungarian is 3-1 against Top 10 opponents, including a win against sixth seed Holger Rune on Sunday. He backed that up with a 7-5, 6-3 result against Alexei Popyrin on Monday.