Top seeds Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev win straight sets to reach Miami Open quarters

Top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain joined Jannik Sinner of Italy and defending champion Daniil Medvedev of Russia to reach the Miami Open quarterfinal round with straight-set victories on Tuesday, outclassing Italy's Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-3 in less than 90 minutes. He will next play Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov who eliminated Poland's Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) for his first quarterfinal in Miami. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Medvedev downed Germany's Dominik Koepfer 7-6, (7-5), 6-0, and Australian Open champion Sinner dispatched Australian Christopher O'Connell 6-4, 6-3.

Alcaraz, 20, is on course to complete the Sunshine Double, winning two American hard court tournaments in the same season after defending his title against Medvedev at Indian Wells earlier this month. 

"I tried to play my game, to play aggressive shots, go to the net, drop shots, my style in general and I think I did pretty well and I am happy with the performance," said the Spaniard, who was enthusiastic about his form.

"I don't know if this is the best game I've played but without a doubt it is the best feeling. I feel great on the court, I'm moving great, I am not injured and not thinking about my ankle anymore...it's the best feeling since the summer," he added.

Meanwhile, Medvedev made an unusually sloppy start on Stadium court, with a series of unforced errors, and found himself trailing 4-0 in the first set tie-break.

But having overturned that deficit, Medvedev went on to win all the remaining games as he showed that, despite his concerns over the rapid deterioration of balls on the hard court surface, he is comfortable with the conditions.

The Russian suggested that Koepfer had struggled to recover from the blow of seeing his tie-break lead vanish.

"I think sometimes it happens, when you lose the first set the way he lost it. He played very good, probably was closer to winning it because of the 4/0 in the tie-break and when you lose such a set, especially when the points were tough, it brings your energy down," he said.

Sinner also withstood a a challenging opening set, trailing 1-3, 0/30 and facing a double break before finding his form to respond strongly, taking the set after 58 minutes. The second set was more straightforward for Sinner who broke O'Connell's first service game and then took care of business to wrap up the win.

"He started off really well, I made a couple of mistakes. When you are a break down especially in the beginning, it's always tough, also mentally," said Sinner.

(With input from AFP)