Madrid Masters 1000: Cachín seeks a place in the quarterfinals against Struff

In a day that started with a couple of surprises at the

,

seeks to celebrate another unprecedented victory in his career, against a rival who entered the draw through the window, but could complicate it.

The Cordoba, 67th in the world, plays for the round of 16 -with

television- with the German

, who entered as a lucky loser after losing in the last round of qualifying, but is better positioned in the ranking than the Argentine

It is that the German, 65th of the ATP, was located 103rd when he closed the entry list for the Spanish contest, at the end of March, for which he did not get a place in the main draw.

At the start of the brick dust tour, he was one of the big surprises in

, where he started in qualifying, gave the big hit against

, four in the world, in the round of 16 and said goodbye in the quarterfinals against

, later champion .

That great performance allowed him to climb to 64th place.

Although the following week he lost in his debut in

against the Swiss

, 209th in the ranking.

Cachin, 28, beat Francisco Cerúndolo in the second round.

EFE/Chema Moya

With an irregular present, Struff could make things difficult for Cachín on the field, if he is on a good day, as happened on the Monegasque brick dust.

Although the 28-year-old from Cordoba arrives on the rise and with great confidence.

The man born in Bell Ville achieved the best victory of his career on Monday by defeating the American

, 11th in the world, 6-1 and 7-6 (7-2) to enter the round of 16 of a Masters for the first time 1000.

"I played very well, I was lucky at times. It's a dream come true for me, to be one of the best in a tournament of this size. In Madrid it's special, I've always done well here," said Cachín, who came to the tournament after making the final in a Challenger in the Spanish capital and losing in the second round in

against

, playing very well.

It is the first duel between Cachín and Struff.

The man from Cordoba, the only albiceleste representative who is still in the race in the

, made his debut with a win against the young Jordanian

, 243rd and guest of the organization;

he then dropped

, the 24th seed;

and he got into the round of 16 by beating Tiafoe.

The 33-year-old German defeated Italian

in the first round , 47th;

in the second, the talented American

, 20 years old and 38th in the ranking;

and in the third, to the Serbian

, 40th.

Alcaraz, intractable;

Medvedev and Rublev, eliminated

needed barely an hour and 22 minutes

to reach the quarterfinals in Madrid and take another step towards defending the title, which he won last year.

The Spaniard, number two in the world and top seed, did not give a chance to the German

, 13th, whom

.

Intractable with the serve -he won 21 of the 24 points he played with the first and 12 of 17 with the second, and gave no chance of breaking- and also very comfortable with the return, the Murcian was the clear dominator of the game.

He connected 14 winners (against 8 for his rival) and made only four unforced errors (half that of the German);

and with four

(two per set), he took an unquestionable victory, which only reaffirms his status as a great candidate to lift the trophy.

Alcaraz will now go for the pass to the semis against

, responsible for one of the surprises of the day.

The Russian, ranked 12th in the world, beat his compatriot

, seeded fifth and who recently won

his first Masters 1000  in

Khachanov added his first victory against a top 10 since 2019 and now he will seek to give the big hit against Alcaraz, whom he could never defeat.

The Murcian took the two games they played previously, in the round of 16 at

and the quarterfinals in Hamburg, both last year. 

The most resounding result of the day came in another Russian duel, in which

, second favorite, fell to 

, 121st and from qualifying, 7-6 (7-1) and 6-4 in one hour and 36 minutes of gameplay.

It was a game in which the number three in the world had, once again, some controversial attitudes.

Medvedev – who has no problem ensuring that he does not like brick dust – complained to the tournament supervisor because he had to play on the

court , the second most important court in the complex and somewhat smaller than

.

"Why do I have this disadvantage when I am the second favourite? I don't understand it

," Medvedev complained.

His dissatisfaction was due to the fact that that stage has less space between the end line and the wall than the main stadium, which makes it difficult, since he usually plays very far back on this type of surface.

Daniil also had, as usual, his crosses with the public.

He threatened to throw a racket into the stands and hit one of the billboards with a ball.

And when the spectators hissed at him, he silenced them, bringing his index finger to his lips.

Karatsev will now face the Chinese 

, 99th in the ranking, who lowered the American Taylor Fritz, 10th in the world, by beating him 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) and 7-6 (10-8).

It was the third win of the week for the Asian against a seed, after dismissing Canadian Denis Shapovalor (21st) in the second round and British Cameron Norrie (11th) in the third. 

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