Jannik Sinner withstood a challenging opening set from Christopher O’Connell Tuesday before finding his best form in the second, defeating the Australian 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau.
The second-seeded Italian powered through O’Connell’s difficult variety, which ranged from heavy backhand slices to taking the ball early and rushing forward, to advance to his fourth consecutive Miami quarter-final after one hour, 51 minutes.
“Today was much different [than Sunday’s match]. Much more windy, so I had to adjust a little bit,” Sinner said. “I had some chances even before I broke him, so I know that I was doing the right things. I tried to serve really solid. He made a couple of mistakes in important moments and I think today was the key.”
“He started off really well, I made a couple of mistakes. When you are a break down especially in the beginning, it’s always tough, also mentally,” said Sinner.
The World No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings dropped just two points behind his serve in the second set to improve to 1-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the 29-year-old, avenging his 2021 Atlanta loss to O’Connell.
Sinner will next meet Czech Tomas Machac, who opened the day with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against Italian Matteo Arnaldi.
Top seed Carlos Alcaraz produced a commanding victory Tuesday when he raced past 23rd seed Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau.
The Spaniard extended his winning streak to nine matches with a heavy-hitting performance at Hard Rock Stadium, where he is aiming to become the first man to claim the ‘Sunshine Double’ since Roger Federer in 2017.
The 20-year-old is eyeing his sixth ATP Masters 1000 title and second in south Florida (2022). Alcaraz will next meet eighth seed 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who rallied past eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).
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