No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain continued his dominance at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday, cruising to a 6-2, 6-3 sweep of 31st-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in third-round action in Indian Wells, Calif.
Alcaraz won the last five games of the first set and first two of the second en route to his eighth straight victory at Indian Wells. He is the defending champion of the event, downing Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in last year’s final.
On Sunday, Alcaraz felt like he was in the driver’s seat for the entire match.
“I think he didn’t get that many points with his serves. I think he lives with his serve,” Alcaraz said of Auger-Aliassime. “I put almost every return in, playing the point. I felt that I’m better than him from the baseline, putting some good points on the court and I think it went well. I played aggressive with less mistakes.
“I think it was almost a perfect match for me.”
For the match, Alcaraz finished with 13 winners and won 25 of 32 first-serve points. Auger-Aliassime posted just five winners. He won 19 of 35 points on his first serve.
Alcaraz is set to face Italian Fabian Marozsan in the next round. Marozsan was a 6-2, 6-2 winner over qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil on Sunday.
Another Italian, No. 3 seed Jannik Sinner, also prevailed in straight sets, dispatching 25th-seeded German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-4.
Sinner is riding a 17-match winning streak.
“I tried to take some confidence and obviously tried to serve very well under pressure, which I (did) very well (Sunday),” said Sinner, who had 27 winners.
Other winners included No. 10 seed Alex de Minaur of Australia and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No. 11 seed. de Minaur posted a 7-5, 6-0 win over No. 20 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, while Tsitsipas got the best of the United States’ Frances Tiafoe, the No. 18 seed, 6-3, 6-3.
In later matches Sunday, No. 32 seed Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic upset No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-4, 6-4 and will face Tsitsipas in the next round. Lehecka tallied nine aces to Rublev’s one and totaled 31 winners compared to eight for Rublev.
Alexander Zverev of Germany, the No. 6 seed, defeated the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor, the No. 27 seed, 7-6 (7), 6-3 and will next take on de Minaur.
It took 16th-seeded American Ben Shelton 2 hours, 43 minutes to hold off No. 22 seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina for a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (5) victory to wrap up Sunday’s action. Shelton will face Sinner in the next round.
–Field Level Media
