Alcaraz and Davidovich advance to Miami Masters 1,000

Spanish Carlos Alcaraz The title defense started this Friday at Miami Masters 1,000 with a blunt victory against the Argentine Facundo Bagnis and passed to the third round, just like his compatriot Alexander Davidovichwith whom he could compete in the round of 16, on the day they mark incredible eliminations from German Alexander Zverev and Greek Maria Sakkari.

Alcaraz needed just 64 minutes to defeat Bagnis 6-0, 6-2 on his return to the track where he lifted the first Masters 1000 of his career to the heavens last year.

The Murcian, who would close 2022 with world number one thanks to his United States Open title, got off to an unbeaten start just five days after being crowned in Indian Wells with an exhibition against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. In the third round, Alcaraz will face the 74th ranked Serbian Dusan Lajović, who was better than the American Maxime Cressy.

The Murcian has won three precedents against Lajovic, including in Rio and Buenos Aires this year, and if he goes through, he could meet his compatriot in the round of 16 Alexander Davidovich. The Rincón de la Victoria (Málaga) native, an Indian Wells quarterfinalist, beat Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 7-6(5).

Spanish tennis lost Roberto Bautista, who was defeated 6-4 and 7-6 (5) by Finn Emil Ruusuvuori, 54th in the world, who was also his executioner two weeks ago in Indian Wells. The Spaniard had two set points to equalize in the second set, with 5-4 on the scoreboard, but failed.

The Japanese Taro Daniel (No. 97) made a big surprise, defeating Zverev 6-0, 6-4, who has not yet found his best version after a very serious ankle injury last year at Roland Garros.

Zverev, number 15 in the world, took a step back after reaching the round of 16 in Indian Wells, when he lost to Russian Daniil Medvedev.

It started with the victory of Argentinean Diego Schwartzman, 38th in the world, who beat 64th Chinese Yibing Wu 7-6(1) and 6-1 and advanced to the third round. After losing in the second round of Indian Wells to Norway’s Casper Ruud, Schwartzman scored a valuable win against an in-form opponent who won this year’s event in Dallas. Now he is waiting for the Danish Holger Runa, the seventh favorite.

In addition, Guido Pella battled for nearly two hours against Canadian Denis Shapovalov (No. 30), but fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. EFE

In the women’s round, the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (number 5) and the Greek María Sakkari (number 10) bid farewell to the tournament for the first time. Jabeur, still not in top form after knee surgery, fell in her debut against Russian Varvara Gracheva 6-2, 6-2 in just over an hour.

Another surprise came from Canada’s Bianca Andreescu who, after a fierce battle marked by a long series of mistakes by both players, which lasted three hours and five minutes, eliminated Sakkari.