Carlos Alcaraz marched past feisty Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 on Monday to further solidify his bid to retain the US Open title by reaching the quarter-finals.
The world No. 1 needed just under two hours to move through against a player who will now find himself in the Top 50 for the first time.
The 22-year-old Arnaldi came into the event with just one hardcourt Tour win to his credit.
Alcaraz, 20, is the second man in the Open Era to reach three US Open quarter-finals under the age of 21 along with Andre Agassi (1988-1990).
The Spaniard finished off victory on the first of three match points as Arlandi mis-hit his return.
“We played with intensity from the start of the match to the last ball,” the winner said.
“I played a really solid match with less mistakes; I played my game and tried to get to the net all the time.
“I’m happy with the performance in general. I’m happy I did things pretty well today.”
Due to the threat of rain and steamy temperatures on the American Labour Day holiday, the match was played under the closed roof of the Ashe arena.
The winner now stands 15-1 at the event and is working to make the first men’s title defence since Roger Federer in 2008.
“Right now my favourite surface is hard court and when I won Wimbledon I said I fell in love with grass,” the winner said.
“I’m really comfortable with the three surfaces, but right now hard courts is my favourite one,” added the player with a 20-3 record on hardcourts this season.
Eighth seed Andrey Rublev exerted pressure on recovering opponent Jack Draper to defeat the Briton 6-3, 3-6- 6-3, 6-4 and reach a fourth quarter-final here.
Draper, who suffered for months with a shoulder injury, came across the Atlantic last month unsure of his fitness but excelled with his run to the last 16 in New York.
Rublev tried to take advantage of his opponent’s lack of match play in a win lasting for two and three-quarter hours.
“From the first point I was feeling the ball well,” the winner said. “But he was also playing well.
“I was able to break him (in the fourth game of the match) and was trying to make the match last for as long as possible.
“He was coming from injury; I could tell he was tired after the first set and was then not playing the same way.
‘I added some extra speed to try and finish the match.”
Draper had been trying to become the first British man in the quarters here since Andy Murray in 2016.
Rublev will be playing his ninth quarter-final at a Grand Slam but has yet to earn a victory at the last-eight stage. He has played quarters this season at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
