• Special This is how Carlos Alcaraz plays

Carlos Alcaraz is on a roller plan. He has been winning his matches for weeks with great solvency. In front of Dusan Lajovic it was no different. He took it out of the way in two sets (6-0 and 7-6) and nullified the good moment of the Serb, who had just defeated Andy Murray and Maxime Cressy in the previous two rounds. With only two and a half hours on the court, the Murcian has already earned a place in the knockout stages of the Miami Masters, a tournament he lifted last year.

It has not taken long for Alcaraz to become a heavyweight of world tennis, to carry on his back a kind of stage fright that ostensibly intimidates his rivals. At 19 years old, he wins matches almost routinely, with a combination of coolness, talent and poise that overwhelm. There are no doubts or loopholes in his game, at least for now. Against Lajovic he again exhibited absolute solidity except in the final bars, where he gave up his advantage in the second set and was forced to play a tiebreak.

Little seems to be affecting him to defend a title of the magnitude of Miami. "I try not to think about the fact that I'm the defending champion," the Spanish teenager told a news conference. "I'm trying not to think about what I won last year. I always say the same thing when I enter a tournament: for me it's a new tournament. It's day by day, round by round. I try to play my best every day, I try to enjoy every game."

Lajovic, ranked 76th at 32, showed much more resistance than Argentina's Facundo Bagnis, against whom he gave up just two games. The initial 3-0 was somewhat misleading. The Serb made Alcaraz sweat to hold his serve and forced a breaking ball that he failed to convert. Very concentrated, El Palmar solved the complicated situations and was building an advantage until scoring a 6-0 -as against Bagnis- that seemed unlikely seeing the first exchanges between the two.

The second leg did reflect much more Lajovic's efforts to give battle. Alcaraz did not struggle at any time until he lost control of the sleeve when he was about to close the game. He dominated the set with a 4-2 and a 5-3 that already seemed definitive. However, Lajovic broke his serve to extend the contest after several errors by the Spaniard. It turned out to be just a lapse of Murcia. The tiebreak was awarded by 7-5, again concentrated and with a cool head to solve the match without giving more wings to his rival, intoned in the final minutes.

The duel of eighths will be against the American Tommy Paul, who left on the way to the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina. The New Jersey is going through one of the best moments of his career, stuck in the Top 20 of the ranking, a player who already defeated Alcaraz in three sets in the only duel between the two. It was at the Canadian Masters in the third round last year.

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  • Carlos Alcaraz