Top seed Carlos Alcaraz withstood a charge from qualifier Luca Nardi for a 6-1 4-6 6-3 win in the 2nd-round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha on Wednesday, while No 2 seed Alex de Minaur from Australia, 4th-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia, 5th-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia and 8th-seeded Jack Draper of Great Britain all won their matches in straight sets.
My energy levels probably went down a little bit, but credit to him. Carlos Alcaraz
Draper easily eliminated Australian qualifier Christopher O’Connell, 6-2 6-1, and will next play Matteo Berrettini, who followed his upset of Novak Djokovic with a lengthy 7-6(4) 6-7(6) 6-4 win against Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands, that kept the Italian on court for 2 hours and 27 minutes.
The British No 1 did not face a single break point, and needed just 59 minutes to wrap up his win against the Australian.
The World No 16 is playing his first tournament since retiring injured from his 4th-round meeting with Alcaraz at January’s Australian Open.
He broke serve in the first game of the match, and again at 4-2, before serving out the opener, while O’Connell won just one game in the second.
The 23-year-old will face Berrettini, and remains on course for a semi-final encounter with Alcaraz, who beat Nardi later on Wednesday.
Carlos Alcaraz dropped a set to another qualifier, Luca Nardi, but advanced to the Last 8 to meet Jiri Lehecka
© Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images
The 21-year-old Spaniard let his guard down in the second set, when his Italian opponent fought back from trailing 1-4 to force a decider.
“My energy levels probably went down a little bit, but credit to him,” said the World No 3, who next faces Jiri Lehecka from Czechia.
The 23-year-old Czech has stormed into 2025 with an 11-2 record, clinching his 2nd tour-level title in Brisbane, and reaching the Australian Open 4th-round before falling to 10-time champion Novak Djokovic.
Now ranked 25, Lehecka will be on the brink of surpassing his career high of No 23 with a quarter-final win on Thursday in Doha, but he faces Alcatraz.
The Spaniard leads their head-to-head 1-0, having defeated Lehecka on his way to the ATP 500 title at Queen’s Club in 2023.
“It was his first ATP tournament on grass,” Lehecka recalled. “I had played Stuttgart before, so I felt like I was in good form.
“I must say that I was very surprised by his level, how extremely well adapted he was playing on grass. I [knew] that he liked to play on hard courts, definitely on clay, but grass, I felt, like, it could have been his worst surface. Immediately he proved me wrong. He showed his skills, that he can bring his top game also on grass.”
A lot has changed since then, and Lehecka has amassed a total of 6 wins against Top 10 opponents, despite suffering a 4-month stint on the sidelines last year, which stalled his momentum.
Alcatraz, too, has since landed 4 major titles and 5 at ATP 1000 level.
On Wednesday he converted 5 of 11 break-point opportunities, to 2 of 5 for the Italian, Nardi, who produced 5 double-faults.
Alcaraz won the opening set, and was up 4-1 in the second when Nardi, ranked 85 in the world, roared back to force a third.
Having won 12 straight matches at ATP 500 events, Alcatraz now faces Lehecka, who ousted Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan, 6-4 6-2.
Also on Wednesday, de Minaur beat Botic van de Zandschulp from the Netherlands, 6-4 6-4, to set up a quarter-final match against Rublev, who was a 6-3 6-4 winner over Portugal’s Nuno Borges.
Medvedev beat Belgian Zizou Bergs, 6-2 6-1, and will meet Auger-Aliassime in the Last 8, who received a walkover from Hamad Medjedovic, after the Serbian withdrew due to a right leg injury.