Alcaraz dismantles Carballes Baena to begin his Miami Open campaign
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Roberto Carballes Baena 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday night. He’ll face Gael Monfils in the next round
Carlos Alcaraz, Miami 2024 | © Julien Nouet for Tennis Majors
Top seed Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the third round of the Miami Open by beating Roberto Carballes Baena 6-2, 6-1 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday.
This was Alcaraz’s seventh win in a row on the tour, as he seeks to complete the prestigious ‘Sunshine Double’ having won the title in Indian Wells last week.
“It was difficult to adapt my game with the humidity, the court, the balls, everything”, Alcaraz said after the match.
“But I think I did pretty well. I’m really happy with my performance, the level that I hit the ball, that I solved everything. Hopefully I will keep going.
“I’m more aggressive than him, I think. My ball goes faster. I have a lot of things that I can do on the court. Probably that’s the difference from today’s match.”
Alcaraz can become just the third player under the age of 21 to achieve the Sunshine Double since the Miami Open’s inception in 1985, after Jim Courier (1991) and Michael Chang (1992). Alcaraz won Miami in 2022 and Indian Wells in both 2023 and 2024.
At 75.4%, the Spaniard is now one of four players to hold a win rate of 75% or higher on hard courts at ATP level this decade, along with Novak Djokovic (88.2%), Daniil Medvedev (79.6%) and Jannik Sinner (77.4%).
Alcaraz, ranked second in the world, will face Gael Monfils in the next round after the Frenchman beat Jordan Thompson later in the day.
In the previous round, Carballes Baena, ranked No 64, won against Australian Aleksandar Vukic (7-6 (2), 6-3). Roberto Carballes Baena now holds a career win-loss record of 1-15 against opponents ranked in the ATP’s top 10, with his lone victory coming against Holger Rune at the first round of the latest US Open.
Miami Masters 1000, other second-round results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 10.404.205, most recent results first):
- Fabian Marozsan vs. Holger Rune
- Jiri Lehecka vs. Alexei Popyrin
- Alex De Minaur vs. SoonWoo Kwon
- Grigor Dimitrov vs. Alejandro Tabilo
- Daniel Altmaier vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
- Yannick Hanfmann vs. Adrian Mannarino
- Martin Landaluce vs. Ben Shelton
- Lorenzo Musetti vs. Roman Safiullin
- Laslo Djere vs. Karen Khachanov
- Gael Monfils vs. Jordan Thompson
- Francisco Cerundolo vs. Sebastian Ofner: sunday
- Daniel Evans vs. Christopher Eubanks: saturday
- Alexander Zverev (4) beat Felix Auger-Aliassime: 6-2, 6-4
- Sebastian Korda vs. Roberto Bautista Agut: saturday
- Hubert Hurkacz (8) beat Alexander Shevchenko: 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3
- Cameron Norrie (30) beat Flavio Cobolli: 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2
- Daniil Medvedev (3) beat Marton Fucsovics: 6-4, 6-2
- Matteo Arnaldi beat Alexander Bublik (17): 6-4, 6-1
- Casper Ruud (7) beat Luca Van Assche: 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-1
- Jannik Sinner (2) beat Andrea Vavassori (Q): 6-3, 6-4
- Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (27) beat Juncheng Shang (WC): 6-3, 7-5
- Andy Murray beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry (29): 7-6, 6-3
- Denis Shapovalov beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (10): 6-2, 6-4
- Thiago Seyboth Wild (Q) beat Taylor Fritz (12): 6-3, 6-4
- Dominik Koepfer beat Sebastian Baez (18): 6-3, 6-2
- Christopher O’Connell beat Frances Tiafoe (21): 7-5, 7-6 (5)
- Tallon Griekspoor (25) beat Alex Michelsen: 7-6 (5), 6-7 (7), 6-4
- Nicolas Jarry (22) beat Jack Draper: 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (2)
- Martin Damm (WC) beat Tommy Paul (13): 4-6, 2-1 ret.
- Ugo Humbert (14) beat Botic van de Zandschulp: 6-4, 6-3
- Tomas Machac beat Andrey Rublev (5): 6-4, 6-4
