Impressive Alcaraz marches into Monte-Carlo quarter-finals

Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz turned on the style as he reached the quarter-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters by beating German qualifier Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-1 at the Monte-Carlo Country Club on Thursday.

The world No 3 had to battle hard in the opening stages but pulled away and in the end, was an impressive winner as he set up a clash with Frenchman Arthur Fils.

The match contained one of the rallies of the tournament so far as Alcaraz chased down a drop shot, recovered to hit a tweener lob and then hit the winner on the backhand side.

“The result doesn’t show how difficult it was,” Alcaraz told Sky Sports. “I had to battle at the beginning of the first set.

“In the second set, I was able to be more aggressive even than I was in the first set. I took my chances, but it wasn’t easy.”

The 21-year-old Spaniard won against Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo (3-6, 6-0, 6-1) ahead of his victory.

In the previous rounds of the Monte-Carlo tournament, Altmaier, ranked No 84, won against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 16 seed (7-6 (5), 6-3) and French wildcard Richard Gasquet (7-5, 5-7, 6-2).

Monte-Carlo Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Monte-Carlo Country Club, clay, EUR 6.128.940, most recent results first):

• Alejandro Tabilo vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Nuno Borges vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Lorenzo Musetti
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Alex De Minaur
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Casper Ruud: thursday
• Arthur Fils beat Andrey Rublev (7): 6-2, 6-3
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Jack Draper (5): 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4