Indian Wells: Carlos Alcaraz sweeps aside Fabian Marozsan as holder reaches last eight Published 23 hours ago

Carlos Alcaraz clinched a straight-set victory over Fabian Marozsan to reach the quarter-finals and continue his title defence at Indian Wells.

The Spaniard needed 75 minutes to wrap up a 6-3 6-3 win against the Hungarian.

World number two Alcaraz is bidding to become the first player to defend the title since Novak Djokovic in 2016.

He will face Alexander Zverev in the last eight after the German sixth seed recovered from a slow start to beat Australia’s Alex de Minaur 5-7 6-2 6-3.

After taking the first set, 10th seed De Minaur broke serve in the first game of the second set.

However, Zverev immediately broke back and did not lose serve for the rest of the match, converting five of his seven break opportunities and saving eight of 11 break points faced.

“I don’t remember having a better match in wind than I did today,” Zverev said.

“When you’re down a set and a break, you have to figure it out if you’re going to continue, or you’re going to be off the court in 20 minutes. I had to play differently from both sides, and I managed it well today.”

Also in California, Greek 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas fell to a surprise 6-2 6-4 defeat by Jiri Lehecka.

The Czech 32nd seed won his first ATP title in January by beating Britain’s Jack Draper in the final of the Adelaide International.

Lehecka will play Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals after the Italian third seed beat American Ben Shelton 7-6 (7-4) 6-1.

Sinner has won 18 successive matches stretching back to last season and is chasing a third tournament victory of 2024 after lifting the Australian Open and Rotterdam Open titles.

Two-time major winner Alcaraz said he was “nervous” before his meeting with Marozsan, having lost to the world number 58 in straight sets at last year’s Italian Open.

“I was nervous before, I’m not going to lie. Playing against someone who beat you easily, I remembered I had no chances to win the game in Rome so it was difficult for me,” he said.

“Today I knew what I had to do better than I did in Rome.”

Alcaraz broke twice in the opening set and claimed the decisive break in the sixth game of the second to seal his place in the last eight for a third consecutive year at Indian Wells.

The 20-year-old added: “I did a few mistakes that I didn’t want to make so that’s what I want to be better. I want to serve better. It doesn’t mean today I served bad but I want to keep improving and putting good tennis on the court.”