Alcaraz firing on all cylinders in Indian Wells, brushes aside Auger-Aliassime

Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the second seed, reached the last 16 of the Indian Wells Masters by winning against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 31 seed, 6-2, 6-3 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Sunday evening.

After a dicey start to his title defence in the desert, Alcaraz is well and truly firing on all cylinders now in Indian Wells. Since dropping his opening set of the tournament to Matteo Arnaldi, the Spaniard has now claimed four sets for the loss of just six games.

Against Auger-Aliassime, the result never really seemed in doubt. Alcaraz blasted 13 winners to just four unforced errors, while the Canadian’s stats were almost inverse, making 10 errors for just five winner.

After the victory, Alcaraz laid down a sign of intent as well – signing the camera “N. See you soon!” – which can only have been directed towards current world No 1 Novak Djokovic.

Alcaraz, ranked No 2, will play Hungarian Fabian Marozsan next.

The 20-year-old Spaniard beat Italian Matteo Arnaldi (6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-1) in the previous round of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters.

In the previous round of the Indian Wells Tennis Masters, Auger-Aliassime, ranked No 31, won against French qualifier Constant Lestienne (6-4, 6-1).

Indian Wells Masters 1000, other third-round results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 9.495.555, most recent results first):

• Ben Shelton vs. Francisco Cerundolo
• Alexander Zverev vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Lorenzo Musetti vs. Holger Rune
• Taylor Fritz vs. Sebastian Baez
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Sebastian Korda
• Cameron Norrie vs. Gael Monfils
• Casper Ruud vs. Arthur Fils
• Tommy Paul vs. Ugo Humbert
• Novak Djokovic vs. Luca Nardi
• Andrey Rublev vs. Jiri Lehecka
• Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Jannik Sinner
• Alex De Minaur (10) beat Alexander Bublik (20): 7-5, 6-0
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (11) beat Frances Tiafoe (18): 6-3, 6-3
• Fabian Marozsan beat Thiago Seyboth Wild (Q): 6-2, 6-2