World No. 1 Iga Swiatek bowed out of the Miami tennis tournament after suffering a surprise loss to Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6, 2-6. The match lasted an hour and 25 minutes.
The 2022 champion started the match very badly and was broken in her first service game. Alexandrova withstood the pressure until the end of the set, saving a break point before winning 6-4. In the second part, she was even more convincing against the Pole, making two breaks for the win. For the Russian, a quarter-final clash is ahead with the host representative and number 5 in the scheme Jessica Pegula, who eliminated her compatriot Emma Navarro.
However, the American women lost another one of their top tennis players in the face of US Open champion Coco Gauff. Gauff, 20, fell to 23rd seed Caroline Garcia, who had earlier stopped Viktoriya Tomova, 3-6, 6-1, 2-6. For the Frenchwoman, a new match is ahead with a representative of the hosts - Danielle Collins, who gave five games to Sorana Cirstea from Romania.
In the other two quarter-finals, the curious thing is that there are two Kazakh women. In one, last year's finalist Elena Rybakina faces eighth seed Maria Sakari, and in the other Yulia Putintseva plays three-time champion Victoria Azarenka.
On the men's side, Carlos Alcaraz made no mistake against the French veteran Gael Monfils and advanced to the round of 16 after 6-2, 6-4. The leader in the scheme and champion from Indian Wells earlier this month will play Lorenzo Musetti in the next phase and, if successful, could face our Bulgaria's racket Grigor Dimitrov if the Bulgarian can handle Hubert Hurkacz.
In the other two round-of-16s in the top half, fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev faces Karen Khachanov, while Alex de Minaur (9) faces Fabian Marozsan. At the bottom are seventh-seeded Casper Ruud, second-seeded Jannick Sinner and reigning champion Daniil Medvedev. /BGNES
