Alcaraz defuses Shapo threat for 14th-consecutive Indian Wells win

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz eased past Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-4 to make the fourth round of the Indian Wells Masters in California on Monday evening.

The victory is Alcaraz’s 14th in a row at the ATP Masters 1000 event, and 18^th overall, with the Spaniard winning 28 of his last 30 sets in the Californian desert.

Only Jimmy Connors made a better start to his Indian Wells career since the event’s beginning in 1976, winning 19 of his first 20 matches.

“I think I was better than the first match,” Alcaraz declared after the match.

“If I did it the previous year, why not this year? So I’ll try to be better. I knew at the beginning of the match that I had to be really focused. I had to start the match really strong, knowing it was going to be a really tough battle. Just really happy that I was able to do it. Denis is a great player. He’s been playing really good tennis lately. He started the season really strong with really powerful shots.

So I’m just really pleased about my performance today, about everything I have done, 5-Love, so I had to finish the set at that moment, because I think those two games in the first set show a little bit, you know, push him up a little bit. So in the second set, it was a bit better, I guess. But in general, just really happy. Few things that I have to improve, but I really happy.”

Shapovalov improves, but falls short

Shapovalov narrowly avoided a bagel in the opening set, fending off two set points in the sixth game to become just the fourth man outside of Jannik Sinner to break Alcaraz at Indian Wells.

The break brought a renewed level of energy from Shapovalov’s end, with the Canadian winning eight points in a row and holding to love in the next game.

The damage was already done, however, and in the eighth game Alcaraz restored order, closing out the first set 6-2 on his third attempt in 42 minutes.

It was a much better start to the second set for Shapovalov, who held serve for just the second time to take a 1-0 lead. He pushed Alcaraz hard in game two as well, with the Spaniard requiring all of his skill in one of the points of the match to hold serve.

Four more service holds then ensued, before some wayward serving in the seventh game handed Alcaraz a break. While Shapovalov managed to hold his next, the solitary break was enough for the No 2 seed to close out the match, winning 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 23 minutes.

“The serve is something I’m working on a lot,” Alcaraz reflected after the match.

“Hopefully the percentage will be a bit better. A few mistakes I made in the second set also. I’ll try to be focused on that. Just to show good tennis again.”

Next up, Alcaraz will take on the winner of No 14 seed Grigor Dimitrov and French veteran Gael Monfils in the round of 16.

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