Cincinnati Open: Alcaraz, Sinner march to quarterfinals

Cincinnati [US], August 14 : Rivals Carlos Alcaraz and world number one Jannik Sinner secured wins in their respective round of 16 matches at the Cincinnati Open, making it to the final eight of the tournament.

Alcaraz made it to the quarters on Wednesday night, securing a 6-1, 6-4 win over Italy's Luca Nardi.

The world number two was dominant from word go, winning 13 of first 14 points of the match and took only 27 minutes to win the first set. But in the second set, Alcaraz found himself trailing 2-4, before tallying four successive games and making it to the final eight with the match lasting 80 minutes.

Speaking about his match as quoted by ATP's official website, Alcaraz said, "I think this match was the best so far for me in this tournament. At the beginning of the tournament, I just really wanted to get better every day, after every practice and every match. I think I'm doing it, which I'm really proud about. I am just really happy with the way I felt the ball today and the way that I moved."

So far in this tour on the other hand, Sinner has won all of his six sets, gaining another climb towards regaining his title, overcoming French qualifier Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 7-6(4) in a match which was disrupted by rain.

Sinner was not at his most free-flowing, but still managed to grind out a win despite a two-hour, 45 minute rain delay, which started during the second set start.

Speaking about his match, Sinner said, "He is a very tough opponent. Very different from other opponents, not only because he is a lefty but how he hits the ball. It is very low. I just tried to serve well and tried to see what I could do in the return games."

"He was serving very well, especially on the Ad side, on the wide one was very precise. I changed the position, trying to make him feel uncomfortable. I struggled a bit to close it out, but this can happen in this sport, and I am very happy to be in the next round," he added.

After this win in one hour and 48 minutes, Sinner's win streak on hard court has extended to 24 matches, surpassing that of Serbian icon Novak Djokovic (23 wins in 2015) as he climbed to eighth place on the list of the longest hard-court winning streaks of this century. His last loss on the surface dates back to October, against Alcaraz in the Beijing final.

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