Alcaraz cruises past Auger-Aliassime at Indian Wells

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round at Indian Wells with a comfortable straight-set win over Felix Auger-Aliassime.

World number two Alcaraz, 20, cruised to a 6-2 6-3 victory over the Canadian to set up a meeting with Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in California.

Italian third seed Jannik Sinner also progressed in straight sets, beating German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3 6-4.

Greek 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas beat American Frances Tiafoe 6-3 6-3.

Alcaraz did not drop a set on his way to winning the Indian Wells title last year but he had been forced to come back from a set down in his opening match against Italian Matteo Arnaldi.

He faced no such difficulties as he hit form against the 31st seed Auger-Aliassime.

After winning five successive games to take the first set in 32 minutes, Alcaraz carried that momentum into the second set as he clinched an immediate break of serve to take firm control of the match.

Auger-Aliassime survived two break points when trailing 3-1 to stay in contention, but Alcaraz sealed an impressive victory by taking his first match point on his opponent’s serve.

“It was almost the perfect match for me,” said Alcaraz.

“I played at a really high level, so much higher than the first round.

“My confidence has gone down a little bit, I’ve been struggling during practice every day. I’m trying to keep my confidence as high as I can.”

Upcoming opponent Marozsan, the world number 58, beat Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild 6-2 6-2 to progress.

Australian Open champion Sinner, 22, needed just 74 minutes to get past 25th seed Struff and he will now look forward to a meeting with American 16th seed Ben Shelton following his 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 7-6 (7-5) win against Argentina’s 22nd seed Francisco Cerundolo.

Tsitsipas, who in February dropped out of the top 10 in the world rankings for first time in five years, faces Jiri Lehecka in the next round after he beat Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev 6-4 6-4.

Czech 32nd seed Lehecka, who lost in the second round against Rublev last year, is appearing at just his second Indian Wells.

German sixth seed Alexander Zverev beat Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 to set up a match against Australian 10th seed Alex de Minaur, who overcame Alexander Bublik 7-5 6-0.