Carlos Alcaraz eased past Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in testing conditions at the Cincinnati Open to rack up his 50th win for the season.
Alcaraz kept his cool in the Ohio heat to notch his 13th consecutive Masters 1000 win and sailed into the fourth round of the ATP Masters 1000 event.
The opening stages of the match was hard fought The momentum then shifted clearly toward the Spaniard, however, with Medjedovic serving at 3-3. The Serbian saved three break points, but the pressure told on the fourth, when he produced a double fault to hand his opponent a breakthrough.
Medjedovic received treatment from the physio for neck pain at the end of the first set and played aggressively in the second set to try and shorten the rallies in the heat. Although he was able to reclaim a break for 3-3 and ultimately outhit Alcaraz by 25 winners to 16 overall, that approach proved too inconsistent to overcome the Spaniard.
The Serbian netted consecutive drop shots to gift Alcaraz another break for 4-3, and this time the Spaniard did not let slip his lead. He completed his 95-minute win, having converted three of seven break points he earned, ATP reports. Having already lifted titles in Monte-Carlo and Rome in his current Masters 1000 winning streak, Alcaraz will take on Luca Nardi next in Cincinnati as he chases his eighth trophy at that level.
Having both qualified for the ATP Finals, Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz will compete in a thrilling battle for ATP Year-End No. 1 honours over the remaining months of the year. Alcaraz currently holds a 1,500-point lead over Sinner in the ATP Live Race To Turin. In other action, ninth seed Andrey Rublev pulled a three-hour, 30-minute marathon against 21st seed Alexei Popyrin. Rublev prevailed 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5 to level his ATP Head-to-Head series with Popyrin at 2-2.
Inclement weather suspends third round matches in Cincinnati
World No. 3 Alexander Zverev was denied the opportunity to serve out his third-round Cincinnati Open evening match against Brandon Nakashima as the inclement weather led to the suspension of play on Wednesday (IST).
The 2021 tournament champion had just broken for a 6-4, 5-4 lead when players were forced from the court at 9:03 p.m. due to lightning in the area. Heavy rain soon followed and less than 30 minutes later officials cancelled all remaining play for the night, ATP reports.
“Due to the rain, there will be no further play this evening. A revised order of play for Wednesday will be released shortly,” the organisers said. When play resumes, Zverev will attempt to serve out the match and set a fourth-round showdown with Karen Khachanov, who upset the German in last week’s Toronto semi-finals after saving one match point. Ben Shelton’s scheduled night match with Roberto Bautista Agut will now be played Thursday (IST). Thunderstorms also forced the postponement of two scheduled women singles third-round matches.
No. 4 seed and defending finalist Jessica Pegul and No. 31 seed Magda Linette completed two sets before play was suspended for the night after heavy rain pummeled the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Linette won the first set in a tiebreak 7-6(5) before Pegula hit back to take the second set 6-3. Heavy rain and lightning interrupted the second set between Linette and Pegula twice. Linette and Pegula will resume their match second on P&G Center Court on Thursday (IST) following the ATP match between No. 7 seed Holger Rune and No. 10 seed Frances Tiafoe. The match will begin no earlier than noon local time and will be the first of three women’s singles matches on the main stadium for the day. Also postponed to Thursday was the third round between No. 16 seed Clara Tauson and Veronika Kudermetova, and two doubles matches.