Iga Swiatek’s hopes of landing another ‘Sunshine Double’ ended in a 6-4, 6-2 fourth-round loss to Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday as the world No. 1 joined third seed Coco Gauff in making an early exit from the Miami Open.
Swiatek, who won the first leg of the Sunshine Double at Indian Wells earlier this month, was completely outplayed by the Russian world No. 16, who claimed the biggest win of her career.
Top seed Swiatek, who captured the Sunshine Double in 2022, never broke Alexandrova’s serve and had no answer to her powerful and precise groundstrokes under the lights in South Florida.
Alexandrova, seeded 14th, will next face fifth seed Jessica Pegula in the quarter finals after she overcame fellow American Emma Navarro 7-6(1), 6-3.
Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia’s serve was clicking early in her battle against Gauff and she never faced a break point in the opening set before the American raised her level to even the affair at a set apiece.
In the first game of the deciding set, Garcia fended off four break points to hold serve and broke at love to take a
2-0 lead she would not relinquish against her 20-year-old opponent.
Alcaraz on target
Top seed Carlos Alcaraz dominated Gael Monfils 6-2, 6-4 and fourth seed Alexander Zverev escaped a tight first set en route to a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over Christopher Eubanks to reach the last-16 here on Monday.
Alcaraz, who triumphed at Indian Wells, is still on his quest to capture the ‘Sunshine Double’ unlike Swiatek and the 20-year-old was never really threatened in a match-up of two of the game’s most entertaining players.
Brazilian footballer Neymar and former grand slam champion Juan Martin del Potro were among those in the stands.
Zverev limited his unforced errors, converted his two break point opportunities and saved four of the five break points he faced before closing out the contest with
a forehand volley into the
open court.
Bopanna, partner up
India’s Rohan Boppana and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden moved to the men’s doubles quarter finals with a hard-fought win
over Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski here.
Top seeds Bopanna and Ebden toiled for one hour 39 minutes before pulling off a 7-5, 7-6 (3) win over Monegasque Nys and Poland’s Zielinski in the second round on Monday.
The 43-year-old Bopanna and Ebden will take on Australia’s John Patrick Smith and Netherlands Sem
Verbeek next.
The match was contested on an even keel. Bopanna and Ebden broke Nys and Zielinski in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead. They then fought off a late challenge, saving a couple of break points before taking the 12th game and the opening set. In the second set, both pairs held serve till 6-6 to take the match to the tie-breaker.
But a double fault by Nys and Zielinski led to their downfall as the Indo-Australian duo capitalised on it to take the set and the match.
