Carlos Alcaraz keeps Miami Open title defence on track with straight-sets win

World No 1 Carlos Alcaraz eased past Serbia's Dusan Lajovic to keep his Miami Open title defence on track.

The Spaniard brought Daniil Medvedev's 19-match unbeaten run to an end in last week's Indian Wells final and looked impressive again on Sunday when he secured a 6-0, 7-6 victory.

Alcaraz replaced Novak Djokovic at the top of the world rankings again thanks to the win over Medvedev and looked like he was going to make very short work of Lajovic after a near-flawless first-set performance.

Lajovic put up a fight in the second set, though, fending off three match points in the tiebreak. But Alcaraz – who defeated Casper Ruud in last year's final to become the youngest ever champion – held his nerve and clinched it with a blistering backhand winner before pumping his fist triumphantly.

“Everything was under control,” said the 19-year-old, who set up a fourth-round meeting with Australian Open semi-finalist Tommy Paul. “But end of match is never easy. The nerves came out. I made a few mistakes that I didn't do around the whole match. So it was tough to win.

“I always think that you have to go for it. That's what I told myself in [those] tough moments.”