MONTE CARLO - On a level of his own, second seed Carlos Alcaraz showcases a commanding performance to sail past German qualifier Daniel Altmair, reaching his 16th career Masters 1000 quarterfinal, his first at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Thursday.
World number three Carlos Alcaraz sailed through the round of 16 with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph over world No. 84 Daniel Altmaier in one hour and 26 minutes on Court Rainier III on Thursday afternoon.
Assessing his performance, he commented: “Honestly, it was difficult. Danny is playing great; he’s a solid clay-court player with a difficult game, a lot of top spin shots, and is really good physically.
“The score doesn’t show how difficult it was… I had to battle in the first set.”
Adding: “In the second set, I could be myself more, play more aggressively than in the first, and I took my chances.”
The former world number one broke serve three times en route to pocket the first set 6-3 in 52 minutes.
In control of play from the onset, the 17-time ATP titlist continued to build his run of form against the 26-year-old in their first meeting at tour level.
In the fourth game of the second set, Alcaraz began to sentence the match in his favor, converting a break to nail a 3-1 lead.
From there, he never looked back; wise on the return, the Murcia native raced to the finish line, achieving a double break in the sixth game before closing out 6-1.
Roland-Garros defending champion, fired 17 winners (13 with his forehand) against 33 unforced errors, converting five of seven break-point opportunities.
Meanwhile, Altmair hit five winners to 29 unforced errors across the contest.
On Wednesday, the Spaniard rallied from a set down to overpower world No. 22 Francisco Cerundolo, recoding his 82nd win in his 100th clay match, his first in the first Masters 1000 of the season contested on the surface.
On Friday, the four-time Grand Slam champion will square off against Frenchman Arthur Fils, who shocked 2023 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters titlist Andrey Rublev, 6-2, 6-3 in just 62 minutes on Court des Princes.
“It’s going to be really difficult against Arthur, who is playing great tennis,” Alcaraz said, speaking about his next adversary. “It’s going to be an interesting match, beautiful to watch, and hopefully, the people are going to enjoy it.”
The 12th seed comes off the back of back-to-back Masters 1000 quarterfinals on the hard courts at Indian Wells and Miami.
A nail-bitter quarterfinal matchup awaits the fans on Court Rainier III.
