Sighting the top of the ATP, the Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz faced the quarterfinals of Indian Wells against an opponent she never beat, Felix Auger-Aliassime, while number one Iga Swiatek qualified for an explosive semifinal against Elena Rybakina.
Alcaraz, world number two, was fighting for the last ticket to the men’s semifinals that would quote him with the Italian Jannik Sinner, who this Thursday eliminated the current champion, the American Taylor Fritz.
Sinner, number 13 in the ATP, beat Fritz (5) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 17 minutes of play to the disappointment of the fans on center court in Indian Wells (California). .
Fritz, born 200 kilometers away in San Diego (California), saw his dream of repeating last year’s unexpected success cut short, when he beat Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the final.
Sinner, on the other hand, is the first Italian in the semifinals in the 47-year history of Masters 1000 and is eager for revenge against Alcaraz for his defeat in the quarterfinals of last US Open, in an epic duel that ended just around three in the morning. .
Against Fritz, Sinner exhibited great mental strength to overcome some mistakes at key moments.
«I tried and managed to play aggressively. I am very happy with my performance, playing against Taylor is not easy,” said 21-year-old Sinner.
The day ended with Alcaraz’s attempt to put an end to one of the worst particular streaks that he has maintained in his dazzling career.
The Spanish prodigy celebrated his 100th victory on Monday in just 132 games, with a Grand Slam crown (2022 United States Open) and two Masters 1000 (Miami and Madrid, 2022) already shining in his showcase.
Astros like Djokovic and Nadal have kneeled in recent months against the world number two but some still resist him. Among them stands out his rival on Thursday, the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who has a full three victories against the Spanish.
Auger-Aliassime, another of the new pearls of the circuit at 22, won first in the quarterfinals of the 2021 US Open, the tournament in which Alcaraz became known to the general public.
Last year he also defeated him in the group stage of the Davis Cup and in Basel, completing a trio of victories on hard courts, such as Indian Wells.
Alcaraz appears to have recovered from his hamstring problem and has declared himself ready to win his first Indian Wells title on Sunday, which would also return him to world number one.
In the women’s branch, in the WTA 1000 category, Iga Swiatek took another step in her goal of being the first to revalidate this title in three decades.
The young Polish woman finished her quarterfinal match against the Romanian Sorana Cirstea (83) 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 22 minutes.
The veteran Cirstea, who was coming off an unexpected victory in the round of 16 over the French Caroline Garcia, put up all the battle she could but Swiatek ended up imposing her dizzying tennis and advancing again without dropping a set.
The pearl of Warsaw aspires to crown her 50th week as world number one by revalidating the Indian Wells title, a feat that has only been achieved by another tennis player in history, Martina Navratilova between 1990 and 1991.
His last obstacle towards the final, where Maria Sakkari or Aryna Sabalenka will also be present, will be the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, with whom he has a pending account.
Rybakina, Wimbledon champion in 2022, gave Swiatek one of the three defeats she has conceded this year and, the most painful of all of them, in the round of 16 of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the course.
“She is playing very well and in the semifinals you are always going to play against the best players, so I will be prepared,” Swiatek said of her next opponent.
In the first match on Thursday, Rybakina, number 10 in the ranking, needed two hours and 46 minutes to defeat the Czech Karolina Muchova (76) and seal her pass to her first semifinals of a WTA-1000 tournament.
“It has been very hard today,” acknowledged the Moscow-born tennis player, who suffered from the strong sun that returned to this desert region of California on Thursday. “Right from the start I was a bit slower than usual and here the conditions are not so easy for me.”