Medvedev and Alcaraz beat Americans to reach Miami Open semis

MIAMIA GARDENS, Florida: World number one Carlos Alcaraz and in-form Russian Daniil Medvedev booked their places in the Miami Open semifinals with convincing victories over American opponents at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday. Alcaraz crushed ninth-seed Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-2, while Medvedev ended qualifier Christopher Eubanks’ impressive run with a 6-3, 7-5 victory in their quarter-final. Alcaraz needed just 78 minutes to dismiss Fritz with the Spaniard yet again dominating with his big serve and attacking the American from the outset.

The powerful Alcaraz set the tone by breaking Fritz’s first service game and he did the same again at the start of the second set, winning the game to love. The 19-year-old broke again to go 5-2 up and wrapped up the win without losing a point in the final game. He will be up against Italian tenth-seed Jannik Sinner next as he seeks to complete the ‘Sunshine Double’ following his triumph over Medvedev at Indian Wells.

The 26-year-old Eubanks was playing in his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final after upsetting Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Gregoire Barrere and Croatia’s 17th-ranked Borna Coric. The 6-foot-7 (2.01m), big-serving Eubanks showed no signs of nerves, holding his first two serves, but he was unable to take advantage of five break-points in a thrilling fourth game. A half hour rain-break appeared to disrupt Eubanks’ momentum, however, and he was broken on his first service game after the resumption of play, going long and allowing Medvedev to take a 4-3 lead.