MONTE CARLO, Principality of Monaco: Carlos Alcaraz cruised into the Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinals for the first time on Thursday with a straight-sets win over Daniel Altmaier.

British fifth seed Jack Draper was knocked out by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, while Lorenzo Musetti won an all-Italian duel against a limping Matteo Berrettini.

Elsewhere, Alexei Popyrin saved match points as he beat 2024 runner-up Casper Ruud and eighth-seeded Alex de Minaur dismantled ninth seed Daniil Medvedev in straight sets.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has won the tournament in three of the last four years, brushed aside Nuno Borges. Grigor Dimitrov ended the day by overcoming Alejandro Tabilo.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz brushed aside 84th-ranked German Altmaier 6-3, 6-1 to set up a last-eight clash with rising French star Arthur Fils on Friday.

“His (Fils’) level is really high right now,” said Alcaraz. “I saw a little bit from his match today, and he’s playing great.”

Alcaraz took some time to find his rhythm as Altmaier broke back to level at 3-3 in the first set, but it was one-way traffic from then on.

The second seed reeled off three straight games to take the first set before racing through the second in just over half an hour.

“At the beginning of the match, we played really long and tough rallies, really close games,” added Alcaraz.

The 21-year-old, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, is the favorite to lift the title this weekend after early exits for top seed Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic.

Alcaraz lost in his first match on his only previous appearance at the tournament in 2022.

Fils eased into his third successive Masters quarterfinal with a 6-2, 6-3 thrashing of 2023 champion Andrey Rublev.

The 20-year-old Fils is aiming to reach the semis of a Masters event for the first time, after losing in the last eight at both Indian Wells and the Miami Open this year.

“If it’s him, it’s going to be the first time I’m going to play him,” Fils said of meeting Alcaraz.

“It’s going to be a good experience. He’s a big champion. He won four Grand Slams already. I didn’t win a single one.”

Draper lost in three sets to Spaniard Davidovich Fokina.

Draper, who won the Indian Wells title last month, slipped to a 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-4 loss as he failed to reach a first Masters quarterfinal on clay.

Davidovich Fokina edged a hard-fought opening set which featured three breaks of serve.

Draper let three break points slip away in the ninth game, with Davidovich Fokina taking his second set point.

In the second set Draper saved a match point and then leveled the contest in a tiebreak.

In a topsy-turvy third set, though, both broke twice inside the first six games.

Davidovich Fokina delivered the decisive blow in the 10th game to secure his first win over a top-10 opponent on clay since 2023.

Davidovich Fokina will take on Australian Popyrin in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Popyrin, the world No. 27, beat Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, after saving two match points at 3-5 in the third set.

Musetti, seeded 13, beat Davis Cup team-mate Berrettini 6-3, 6-3 and then talked of “the difficulty of playing a friend, a mate, a teammate.”

“This is a special court for me and also for Matteo. We share a lot of moments here in Monte Carlo where we live,” Musetti said. “Definitely one of the toughest challenges for me.”

Musetti will face sixth-seeded Tsitsipas who beat Borges 6-1, 6-1.

World No. 10 De Minaur crushed former US Open winner Medvedev 6-2, 6-2.

“I’m finding my feet on clay,” said De Minaur. “It’s taken me a while in my career. I can be dangerous on this surface.”

The Australian will play Dimitrov, after the 15th-seeded Bulgarian overcame Chilean Tabilo 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

MONTE CARLO, Principality of Monaco: Top seed Alexander Zverev crashed out in his opening match of the Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday falling to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini as defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas and Britain’s Jack Draper both advanced.

World No. 2 Zverev has struggled for any kind of form since his defeat by Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open final at the end of January, winning just six of 12 matches.

But with a first-round bye in the absence of world No. 1 Sinner, who is suspended for a doping violation until May 4, Zverev was among the favorites.

After a controlled start to the game, the German slumped to a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat to 34th-ranked Berrettini, at the end of a high-flying match, which had included an impressive 48-stroke rally won by the Italian.

“It’s been the worst period since my injury (the) last few months,” said Zverev who has suffered a string of early exits of late, including at Indian Wells.

“I played a great first set, and once I got broken in the second set I play ten levels down. My ball is much slower. I stop hitting the ball.

“The same story the last few months. Nothing changes. So it’s me who lost the match, once again.

“I thought my level was terrible, but that’s just my opinion.”

Defending champion and three-time Monte Carlo winner Tsitsipas advanced past 38th-ranked Australian Jordan Thompson. After a lacklustre US tour, the Dubai winner won through 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in his second round tie.

Indian Wells champion Draper, seeded fifth, eased past 45th-ranked American Marcos Giron 6-1, 6-1.

Novak Djokovic — the winner in 2013 and 2015 — and Carlos Alcaraz start their campaigns on Wednesday.

Zverev won the first set against former Wimbledon runner-up Berrettini but a break of serve in the sixth game of the second set allowed the Italian to level the match.

Berrettini broke at 3-all in the final set before blowing a chance to close out victory on his own serve, but he broke again for a 6-5 lead after an astonishing 48-shot rally.

The 34th-ranked Berrettini made no mistake with his second opportunity though, advancing to a last-16 meeting with Lorenzo Musetti or Jiri Lehecka.

“The game plan was the same but I changed my attitude and the way I was believing in my strokes,” Berrettini said.

“I told myself to be more aggressive and if I am going to lose this match, I am going to do the right things and luckily it worked.”

Berrettini has won 17 of his past 18 matches on clay. Last season, he captured clay-court titles in Marrakech, Gstaad and Kitzbuehel. However, he hasn’t played at the French Open since 2021 due to injuries.

“I have missed the biggest tournament on clay for the past three years and that was tough and now I want to enjoy it. I feel really comfortable on clay,” said the former world number six.

For Zverev, last year’s Roland Garros runner-up, it was another disappointing outcome on clay after quarter-final exits in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. His next tournament will be on home soil in Munich.

Meanwhile Tsitsipas let a 5-2 lead slip in the second set, before getting past Thompson to set up a third round meeting with either Portugal’s Nuno Borges or Spaniard Pedro Martinez.

“I really didn’t know what to expect, you don’t know what your opponent is capable of,” said Tsitsipas.

“He showed a good first set, he seemed to be playing quite reserved and wasn’t giving me much to work with. I was just trying to find something to reignite that consistency within my game.”

Dane Holger Rune, the 10th seed, retired due to illness against Portugal’s Nuno Borges.

Rune, the Monte Carlo runner-up in 2023, called for the doctor after losing the opening set before shaking hands with his opponent while trailing 6-2, 3-0.

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, a two-time Monte Carlo semifinalist, defeated Chilean Nicolas Jarry 6-3, 6-4, on his seventh match point.