Miami Masters: Fritz may face Alcaraz in quarter-finals after brushing past Rune

American Taylor Fritz, the No 9 seed, moved into the quarter-finals of the Miami Masters by winning against Dane Holger Rune, the No 7 seed, 6-3, 6-4 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Tuesday.

Fritz, ranked No 10, will face the winner of the match between Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed, and American Tommy Paul, the No 16 seed, next.

This was the first meeting between the pair, and it resulted in Fritz reaching the quarter-finals for the first time in his seventh appearance in Miami.

Rune arrived in Miami full of doubts after his Indian Wells loss to Stan Wawrinka, but he regained some confidence and discipline by getting through two rounds against Marton Fucsovics (6-3, 7-5) and Argentine Diego Schwartzman, seeded No 31 (6-4, 6-2), thanks in part to a good command of his service games.

But that went out of the window against Fritz (four breaks conceded, five double faults, 60% of points on his first serve) and Rune was unable to take his chance on five of his six break points, to come back to 2-2 in the first set.

Ahead of his victory, the American defeated wildcard Emilio Nava (6-4, 6-1) and Canadian Denis Shapovalov, the No 24 seed (6-4, 6-4).

Rune, ranked No 8, won against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics (6-3, 7-5) and Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, the No 31 seed (6-4, 6-2) in the previous rounds of the Miami Open.

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Miami Masters, other last 16 results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Quentin Halys vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Christopher Eubanks
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Tommy Paul
• Karen Khachanov vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Emil Ruusuvuori: tuesday
• Jannik Sinner (10) beat Andrey Rublev (6): 6-2, 6-4