Jannik Sinner advanced to the quarter-finals of the Miami Open as he beat Alex Michelsen while extending his historic run of consecutive sets won in Masters 1000 events to 28.
The second seed held off his American opponent 7-5 7-6 to set up a meeting with the winner of Frances Tiafoe and Térence Atmane in the last eight.
The Italian won 90 per cent of first serve points during the match while delivering 15 aces.
"I feel like today especially the serve helped me very much, especially in important moments," he told Your Site post-match.
"At the back of the court I'm not feeling perfect so will try to improve, but I'm happy to fight my way through this one, it was a very tough match and he played some great tennis. I'm happy with how I handled the situation, especially in the second set."
Sinner has now won nine straight matches since falling to Jakub Mensik in Doha, and is gearing up to try and win his first French Open title with clay court season approaching.
The 24-year-old is seeking his first Grand Slam crown of the season after losing to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
"I'm somebody who is not over the moon when I win matches and somebody who throws me under the bus when I'm losing matches, it would be not fair," he said. "I try to understand my game better, this comes also by playing.
"Being at this high level of tennis for the last couple of years I know my way back and what to do. We try to improve, today was a good feedback, I know if I want to go far in this tournament I need to improve a couple of things.
"At the same time, quarters again and we'll see how it goes before clay."
Home-favourite Tommy Paul meanwhile defeated Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in his career.
The 28-year-old American needed one hour and 14 minutes to overcome his 29th-seeded opponent 6-1 6-3, as he continues his bid for a maiden Masters 1000 title.
Paul, a former Top 10 player, will face 28th-seeded Frenchman Arthur Fils for a place in the last four.
Karolina Muchova fended off stiff competition from Canadian rising star Victoria Mboko in a 7-5 7-6(5) victory to reach the semi-finals of the Miami Open.
Muchova had been trailing 0-30 at 5-4 down when she won four straight points to salvage the hold and get to 5-5, paving the way to her claiming the opening set. Mboko then took the Czech to a tiebreak but was unable to send the match to a deciding set.
"It was very close, basically one point at the end. It can always change in tennis. I'm just very grateful I was able to win the last point," Muchova said. "I tried to stay focused and stay aggressive."
Muchova will now take on Coco Gauff, who was taken to three sets by Belinda Bencic before knocking out the Swiss 12th-seed 6-3 1-6 6-3 to reach the last four.
Gauff fell behind 3-2 in the deciding set, but swept the last four games with a pair of break-point conversions, to clinch the victory.
"I'm not thinking about the title," Gauff insisted. "I think I played enough of these tournaments to know the semis is just as far from the title as the first round almost in a way. I'm really just happy and proud to be here. Definitely didn't think this was the year that it would be my breakthrough here, but I'll take it."
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