Champion Carlos Alcaraz passes ‘test of fire’ to reach last 16 of Madrid Open tennis news

Carlos Alcaraz passed the “fire test” to reach the last 16 of the Madrid Open with a straight-sets win over Thiago Seboth Wild on Sunday, showing he has overcome his injury concerns ahead of the French Open . The double defending champion won 6-3, 6-3 and will face last year’s runner-up Jan-Lennard Struff in the next round after another impressive performance before applauding fans on home soil. World number three Alcaraz, 20, missed Madrid a month ago with an arm injury but came back to defeat Alexander Shevchenko in the second round. Still wearing a protective sleeve on his right arm, he had too much to do for Seboth Wild, who ousted 28th seed Lorenzo Musetti.

“Maybe today I was a little nervous about how it would be, Thiago hit the ball so hard, I didn’t know how the forearm would hold up,” Alcaraz said on the court.

“Today was a litmus test, no discomfort, feels great… from here, we’ll just get better.”

Indian Wells champion Alcaraz took a 4-3 lead in the first set when Seboth Wild pounced first and sent a forehand into the net.

The second seed took the set with another break when his Brazilian opponent double faulted.

Alcaraz gained momentum in the second set, winning 10 of the first 11 points and taking a break in the second and fourth games to take a 5-0 lead.

Seaboth Wild fought for a hold and a break to save some pride, but Alcaraz won on serve when the Brazilian went long.

“I was very comfortable on the court, moving, hitting the ball, like I always say it’s not easy to finish the game, it’s nerve-wracking,” Alcaraz said.

Germany’s Struff defeated France’s Ugo Humbert 7-5, 6-4.

Andrey Rublev came back from 5-0 down in the first set tie-break to beat home favorite Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-6 (12/10), 6-4.

The world number eight saved five set points to stun his opponent ahead of a similarly tough encounter.

Rublev took a 5–4 lead with a shot which the Spaniard chose to miss because he felt it was long, but Hawk-Eye showed it was by a whisker.

The Russian finished his victory with a forehand winner, his second win of the week after four consecutive losses.

Among women, world number four Elena Rybakina entered the last 16 by defeating Egypt’s Mayer Sherif 6-1, 6-4.

The Kazakh, who has won three titles this season after winning in Stuttgart last week, was broken twice in the first set and led 5-0 on Spanish clay.

Although Sherif played hard in the second set, saving four match points to trail 5–4, Rybakina won on serve in Caja Magica.

“Regardless of the score, it was a very tough match,” said Rybakina, who also leads the tour with 28 wins.

“It was a lot of deuces and we both fought a lot – I’m really happy with today’s performance.”

Rybakina will face teenager Sara Bjelek in the next round after the Czech defeated American Ashlyn Krueger 6-3, 6-1.

“I have never played against a player like this,” the 18-year-old said. “I’ll try my best and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

Mira Andreeva defeated Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7–5, 6–1 to return to the last 16 for the second consecutive year.

The 16-year-old Russian won 25 points to nine in the second set against the Czech Republic’s world number seven.

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