Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz remain on course to meet in the Qatar Open final after both claimed straight-set wins on Wednesday.
World number two Sinner beat Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 6-3 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals in Doha, before Alcaraz won 6-2 7-5 against France’s Valentin Royer.
The pair met in six finals last year, three of them at Grand Slams, with world number one Alcaraz winning the French and US Opens.
The 22-year-old Spaniard will next face Karen Khachanov, who beat Marton Fucsovics 6-2 4-6 6-4.
Sixth seed Jakub Mensik breezed past Zhang Zhizhen 6-3 6-2 to set up a last-eight meeting with Sinner, who has now reached at least the quarter-finals in 28 of his past 30 tournaments, stretching back to the 2023 ATP Finals in Turin.
The 24-year-old Italian, who lifted last year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon titles, has now won 22 of his past 23 matches. His only defeat came against Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals last month.
Meanwhile, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas upset world number 11 Daniil Medvedev 6-3 6-4 in Doha to book a clash with fifth seed Andrey Rublev, who beat Fabian Marozsan 6-2 6-4.
The unseeded Frenchman Arthur Fils and Czech Jiri Lehecka, seeded eighth, complete the quarter-final line-up having also claimed comfortable victories.-BBC
