Carlos Alcaraz cruises past Lorenzo Musetti, Casper Ruud made to sweat by Tomas Etcheverry at China Open

ByJames Hilsum

Updated 01/10/2023 at 12:18 GMT

Carlos Alcaraz made light work of his second-round clash against Lorenzo Musetti, dispatching the Italian in straight sets. It was a dominant performance from the Spaniard, who looked to have regained top form in the Chinese capital. It was anything but convincing for Casper Ruud, however, who laboured past the Argentine Tomas Etcheverry to set up a last-eight clash with Alcaraz.

Carlos Alcaraz set up a Beijing Open quarter-final meeting with Casper Ruud after dispatching Lorenzo Musetti in straight sets.

The world No. 2 booked a last-eight berth with a 6-2 6-2 victory over the Italian in the space of an hour and 21 minutes.

Alcaraz emphatically broke Musetti to love in the third game of the opening set and after a successful hold, managed to penetrate the Italian’s serve again.

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He increased his lead to 5-1 and drew first blood in the match in the eighth game, where Musetti showed some resistance to force two break-point opportunities.

However, he couldn't capitalise on either with Alcaraz taking the opener on what was his first set point.

Musetti simply could not cope with the strength of Alcaraz’s returning game, and lost his serve straight away in the second set.

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Alcaraz then staved off a rare break-point opportunity to double his lead.

Musetti surrendered his serve again to go 4-1 behind, despite taking the game to deuce and successfully batting away a break-point chance for Alcaraz.

However, the Spaniard got the job done with relative ease thereafter to set up a tantalising clash with Ruud.

Casper Ruud

Image credit: Getty Images

It was far less straightforward for the Norwegian though, after battling to overcome Argentine Tomas Etcheverry in three sets, 1-6 7-5 7-6(7).

Ruud had a nightmare start in a sobering first set, going 4-1 down and failing to hold again as Etcheverry won it on his second set point.

Ruud managed to bounce back, breaking Etcheverry for the first time in the match to kick off the second set in style.

But it was anything but plain-sailing from that point onwards as the next four games passed by without a break-point opportunity.

In fact, Ruud was broken yet again to level the scores at 3-3, and he missed a chance to break back immediately in the next game.

That elusive break came in the 11th game though when the Norwegian managed to find the crucial break, before holding in the 12th to make it one set all.

The third and decisive set enthralled the Beijing crowd, and Ruud looked like he could be heading for a surprise exit after losing on his serve again to go 4-2 down, but rallied to make it to a tie-break.

Etcheverry looked on course for a famous win after moving 4-0 ahead, but Ruud would impressively level it back to 4-4 and strode forward from there, ultimately sealing victory on his third match point.

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