Toronto: Top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain overcame a slow start and a dramatic ending to beat 15th seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland and reached the quarterfinals of the Canadian Open.
The Spaniard rallied past Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(3) to extend his winning streak to 14 matches on Thursday night.
Aiming for his seventh title of the season, Alcaraz improved to 2-0 in his ATP Head-to-Head series with Hurkacz and now boasts a 49-4 season record.
He will next play 12th seed Tommy Paul, who upset the Spaniard last year in Montreal.
Alcaraz struggled to find his best level early, committing unforced forehand errors as the Pole won the first three games of the match for the loss of just three points to take the opening set.
Despite being broken in the opening game of the second set, Alcaraz stayed focused and found greater consistency in extended rallies as Hurkacz’s first-serve percentage dropped from 69 per cent to 48.
In the final set, the Spaniard built on that momentum and raced away to a 5-2 lead before Hurkacz dug deep and refused to go quietly. He erased not one, but two breaks of service against him and the set remarkably went yet again to a tiebreak.
Alcaraz is making his Toronto debut this week and is hoping for his third ATP Masters 1000 title of the year after winning in Indian Wells and Madrid.
–IANS
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