Canadians Gabriela Dabrowski, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov were eliminated from doubles competition in quarterfinal action Tuesday at the Madrid Open.
Ottawa’s Dabrowski and Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani, who were seeded sixth in women’s doubles competition in Madrid, fell 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 to the top-seeded American duo of Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff.
The Americans had 13 break point opportunities, converting two, and defended two of the three break chances they faced in a match that took one hour 20 minutes to complete.
Later Tuesday, Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., were overpowered 4-6, 6-2, 12-10 by fourth seeds Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands.
The Canadians had nine aces, but committed six double-faults and were broken twice on four chances.
Arevalo and Rojer played a clean match with no double faults and 79 per cent of service points won. They failed to defend the only break point chance they permitted.
Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and American partner Taylor Townsend will face Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Barbora Strycova of Czechia in a women’s quarterfinal on Wednesday.
Carlos Alcaraz made sure he wouldn’t be among the top seeds being upset, playing well from the start to secure his spot in the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Alexander Zverev.
After both second-seeded Daniil Medvedev and fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev lost their fourth-round matches at the clay-court tournament, Alcaraz cruised past 13th-seeded Zverev to stay on track to defend his title at home.
It was a rematch of last year’s Madrid final, which Alcaraz also comfortably won versus the former two-time champion in the Spanish capital.
“For me it’s amazing to play the level that I played today,” Alcaraz said. “I feel really good right now and this match gives me a lot of confidence.”
Alcaraz didn’t concede any break opportunities versus Zverev and converted on four of the 10 break chances he had. The 19-year-old Spaniard ended with 21 winners and 12 unforced errors. Zverev had only nine winners and 22 unforced errors. Alcaraz, coming off the title in Barcelona, has won 18th straight matches in Spain.
