'I kept fighting' – Alcaraz survives Struff scare to make quarter-finals, Sinner progresses

Carlos Alcaraz survived a huge scare to beat Jan-Lennard Struff and reach the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open, progressing 6-3 6-7(5) 7-6(4) after winning a third set tie-break.

A pulsating, compelling match saw Struff provide a huge challenge to Alcaraz, like he did in last year’s final.

Home favourite Alcaraz is going for a third straight title at the tournament but he knew he was in for a difficult afternoon from the very early stages.

Struff missed three break point opportunities in the third game of the first set and the Spaniard left him rueful, as he took the first break of the match to go 4-2 ahead, before seeing out the set 6-3.

The tie was seemingly only heading in one direction as Alcaraz broke Struff in the first game of the second set – giving the German a huge mountain to climb to stay in the competition.

Forehands were exploding from the racquet of the world No. 3, but his usually dependable drop-shot game was lacking.

As he attempted to take a 2-0 lead in the second, Alcaraz flashed a disbelieving grin as he watched another effort drop short on game point.

Despite eventually seizing that 2-0 advantage, Alcaraz was left stunned as Struff upped the level of his performance to fight back.

Aggressive, powerful play from the German saw him take three games on the bounce and, after losing just two points on serve in four games, pushed Alcaraz to serve to stay in the set.

Another missed drop shot failed to disrupt Alcaraz as he held to make it 5-5, before shaky service games from both were overcome to force a tie-break.

Alcaraz started the breaker the better, but five consecutive points from Struff gave him three set points and, at the third time of asking, he forced a deciding set with an ace down the middle.

There was pure joy from Alcaraz at the start of the third set. Not just because he held serve but because he finally executed a drop shot of beauty on Manolo Santana stadium.

More celebratory fist pumps followed as he made the first break of the decider at 3-1.

Struff was far from done, though, and he bit back once again and, as Alcaraz passed up four match points at 5-3, a worried silence spread across the Spanish capital.

The bouncebackability of Struff saw him take a set, which was well beyond him on several occasions, to a tie-break.

Alcaraz took a 3-0 lead but Struff fought back yet again to level the breaker, before the home favourite eventually progressed, albeit via an unintentional detour.

After the match, Alcaraz said: “It was difficult with me to deal with my emotions, handle certain moments, difficult moments in the match.

“I kept fighting, that’s all that matters.”

Speaking about his home advantage, Alcaraz said: “Well I think I have to say thanks to the people here who are supporting me until the last point.

“It was a great support after those difficult moments I had at the end of the third set. They push me up to not give up and keep fighting.”

Andrey Rublev awaits in the next round.

Top seed Jannik Sinner was made to fight hard – and come from a set down – to eventually dispatch the challenge of Karen Khachanov and reach the quarter-finals in Madrid for the first time, winning 5-7 6-3 6-3.

An intriguing battle started as it transpired to go on with the pair fighting to hold serve until 5-5, with Khachanov the only player having a sniff of a break point – which Sinner doused.

Khachanov did take his next chance to make the breakthrough, though, going 6-5 up on his opponent’s serve, before serving to love to move a set ahead.

The Russian came into this with just one win from his four matches against Sinner, so knew the world No. 2 would not back down easily and so it proved as he made an early break in the second before racing into a 3-0 lead.

Sinner controlled proceedings with the class that has seen him rise up the rankings and levelled things by taking the second set 6-3.

Khachanov’s response to being pegged back was to deliver a brutal opening service game in the third set – taking it to love.

However, he went on to miss two break point opportunities before Sinner moved ahead at 3-2 by taking his first opportunity of the set to win on the Khachanov serve.

Sinner held his serve before breaking his opponent once more to book his place in the last-eight.

He is scheduled to play Felix Auger-Aliassime next, but after the match he admitted he is not sure his hip injury will allow him to compete.

“My physio and I did a lot of work yesterday, it was a long night, but that’s what my body says.

“I don’t want to say what time I went to sleep, but you need more treatment and more sleep.

“There are players who find it hard to sleep because they still have adrenaline, that’s not my case, but you do a lot of work after the game. It was a long night and in the morning there is also work to do.

“The important thing is not to wake up worse. Tomorrow I will decide if I can play, I don’t know yet,” he said.