Medvedev and Shviontik’s progress in Miami brings them closer to the world lead

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, ranked second in the world, qualified for the eighth round of the Miami International Tennis Tournament, one of the 1,000-point Masters tournaments, with an easy victory over Spaniard Pedro Martinez 6-3 6-4, while Poland’s Iga Schwentek, who will succeed Australian Ashleigh Barty in the lead world rankings, its thirteenth consecutive victory.
Medvedev, the first seed in the tournament, is the most prominent candidate for the title, having previously eliminated Britain’s Andy Murray from the previous round.
Despite the good performance of Martinez, ranked 47 in the world, he was unable to resist the Russian champion “Flushing Meadows 2021”, who broke the Spaniard’s serve more than once, to settle the meeting in his favor in an hour and 24 minutes.
Medvedev said after his victory: “I hit 14 aces and I felt great, the second set was close but I managed to maintain my level of performance.”
And if he reaches the semi-finals in Miami, Medvedev will regain the top of the professional classification that he snatched from Serbian Novak Djokovic at the beginning of this month, before the latter retrieved it on the 21st of that month after the Russian lost his first match in the (Indian Wells) tournament against Frenchman Gael Monfils. Medvedev met with American Jenson Broxby, who defeated Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, in the last eight.
In contrast to Medvedev’s easy path, the young Spaniard Carlos Alcaras (18 years) fought a fiery confrontation with the veteran Croatian Marin Cilic (33 years), and defeated him 6-4, 6-4.
Alcaras, who embarrassed fellow veteran Rafael Nadal in the Indian Wells semi-final, will meet Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who defeated Australian Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-3.
In the women’s competitions, the eighth-seeded Tunisian Anas Jaber ended in the eighth-finals, losing to the ninth American Danielle Collins 2-6, 4-6.
And it took Collins, who reached the Australian Open final earlier this year before losing to local champion Ashleigh Barty, an hour and 6 minutes to win her second victory over Jaber, out of three confrontations between them.
Collins, 28, will meet in her second quarter-final in Miami after 2018, with Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who beat the other American, Alison Riske, with relative ease 6-3, 6-4.
The Japanese, who fell in the women’s rankings to 77th place after a long absence from last season due to psychological problems, is still searching for her first title since her crowning in early 2021, her second title in the “Australian Open” and the fourth in the “Grand Slam”.
This is only the second time that the Japanese holder of four major championships has reached the quarter-finals in Miami out of six participations, and the first was last year when her career ended at the hands of Greek Maria Sakkari.
As for Šviontik, who will rise to the top of the world rankings, she qualified easily at the expense of American Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-1 in one hour and 16 minutes. This is the 14th match without a loss for 20-year-old Švientek, who benefited from the shocking retirement of Australian Barty to top the world rankings.