3rd round in ATP competition brought the elimination of four high seeds, who could be considered as the contenders to play for the big achievements in the decisive stages of the tournament. Felix Auger Aliassime suffered the unexpected lose to Francisco Cerundolo. The Argentinian, seeded with #25, defeated FAA with a score 6-2 7-5 in quite a one sided match, despite being a pre-match underdog with an odd 4.45. The Canadian, despite being seeded with #5, is not the highest player to be eliminated in this round, as Casper Ruud, seed #3, got defeated by Botic Van De Zandschulp. The Norwegian was a confident pre-match favorite despite his miserable form in 2023 so far. He was rated with an odd 1.32 to win and took the first set with a score 6-3. Van De Zandschulp fought back from being a set down tough and made an upset with a score 3-6 6-4 6-4. It is a really tough season for Ruud so far, as he did not manage to win more than one match in any of his 5 tournament appearances this year. The Norwegian will defend lots of points in upcoming months, so falling down from the top areas of ATP ranking is quite possible for him, if he does not click the gear any soon.
Hubert Hurkacz did not capitalize on his big showdown win against Thanasi Kokkinakis in previous round. The Pole, who prevailed the three tiebreaks battle after 3.5 hours of play and defending 5 matchpoints, came up short against Adrian Mannarino. It was another match of Hurkacz, where every set was settled in tie-break. This time, the world's number 9 did not overcome his opponent, not even being a better player during the course of whole match. Hurkacz scored 20 aces to just 3 done by Mannarino. He scored 36 winners to 19 unforced errors, with quite less spectacular ratio of the Frenchman (23-13). This was nothing in terms of final result tough, as Mannarino was clinical in both tiebreaks, especially in second one where he did not allow Hurkacz to win any single point and clinched the victor with a score 7-6(5) 7-6(0).
Frances Tiafoe will not repeat his great Indian Wells run, where he advanced to the semis, being the best American single player in whole the tournament, considering both ATP and WTA competitions. The #12 seed got eliminated by Lorenzo Sonego 3-6 4-6. Stefanos Tsitsipas was also quite in trouble, fighting the intense battle against Cristian Garin. The recent Australian Open finalist was taken to the distance by the Chilean, but found the decisive break in 9th game of 3rd set, winning eventually 6-3 4-6 6-4.
Another big favorites did not disappoint and came through the Round of 16 without the issues. Carlos Alcaraz, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner scored comfortable wins in straight sets against lower ranked opponents. Daniil Medvedev did not need to even appear on the court, as his opponent Alex Molcan withdrew before the match due to an injury.
Here are the highlights:
