Carlos Alcaraz is playing better and better every day and the Sunshine Double is only two matches away now.
The young Spaniard and his quarterfinal opponent, Taylor Fritz, had to wait for their match a bit longer than other quarterfinalists. The play was suspended on Wednesday due to rain, and their match was rescheduled and played almost 24 hours after it was initially scheduled.
Alcaraz and Fritz never met before and while the World No. 1 was on his quest to defend the Miami Open title, Fritz wanted to reach the semifinals in Miami after being eliminated by Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals in Indian Wells.
But this time, the American faced another member of what slowly and surely started to shape up as the new Big Three, and Alcaraz proved his status as a tennis prodigy in front of the packed Hard Rock Stadium.
The top-seed had a perfect start, breaking his opponent in the first game and confirm the break with a hold. Fritz wanted to come back twice, having break points in the fourth and sixth game, but Alcaraz saved both and controlled his last two service games to win the first set 6-4.
In the first set, the teenager hit 15 winners while making only one unforced error while Fritz racked up a total of 16 winners, but missed four times. Overall, the first set provided fans with a high-quality tennis.
The number of winners was much smaller from both players in the second set, but while Alcaraz stopped missing completely and made 0 unforced errors, Fritz started struggling and made eighth of those, while hitting only six winners.
All of that resulted in a quick set, with Alcaraz prevailing and winning the match 6-4, 6-2 in only an hour and 19 minutes. The Spaniard will now challenge Jannik Sinner in what's becoming a tennis classic on the ATP Tour for these two youngsters.
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