Miami Open top seed Carlos Alcaraz saw his dreams of a sunshine double crash and burn in a shock straight-sets loss to Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov in Thursday's quarter-final.
The reigning Indian Wells Masters and Wimbledon champion was condemned to a 2-6 4-6 defeat in one hour and 32 minutes against the 11th seed, who ended Alcaraz's nine-match winning streak on the ATP Tour.
Prior to the 2024 season, Dimitrov had never advanced past the fourth round of the Miami Open, and he is yet to add another Masters title to his CV since winning the 2017 Cincinnati Open, suffering five semi-final exits since then and losing last year's Paris Masters final to Novak Djokovic.
However, the 32-year-old enhanced his Miami credentials with a scintillating performance against Alcaraz, saving four of the five break points against him and firing 24 winners past the beleaguered Spaniard.
Dimitrov will square off with Daniil Medvedev or Jannik Sinner for Masters glory if he can navigate a semi-final test against fourth seed Alexander Zverev, who sunk Fabian Marozsan 6-3 7-5 to end the unseeded Hungarian's magical adventure.
Marozsan had eliminated the esteemed Holger Rune and Alex de Minaur en route to just his second ATP 1000 quarter-final, but he failed to convert either of his chances to break Zverev, who won 80% of his first-serve points on the afternoon.
Back-to-back Miami finals 🙌
— wta (@WTA) March 28, 2024
Elena Rybakina wins an epic 6-4, 0-6, 7-6(2) clash with Azarenka!#MiamiOpen pic.twitter.com/3BKFzqHmEM
While the men's semi-finals were decided on Thursday, the last four women standing clashed racquets in Miami, and last year's runner-up Elena Rybakina advanced to the final for the second year running in dramatic style.
The former Wimbledon winner was the unexpected victim of a second-set bagel against Belarus' Victoria Azarenka, but the fourth seed edged a nerve-wracking final tie-breaker to triumph 6-4 0-6 7-6[2].
Despite being broken while serving for the match in the 10th game of the third set and squandering her first match point, Rybakina blasted a cross-court forehand beyond a flat-footed Azarenka on her second opportunity.
In doing so, the 24-year-old became just the second woman to win a Miami semi-final after losing a set 6-0, and standing in her way of the WTA 1000 crown will be the USA's home favourite Danielle Collins.
The 30-year-old would ostensibly face a stern examination against Ekaterina Alexandrova - who had beaten Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula to set up a showdown with Collins - but the Florida native was a dominant 6-3 6-2 victor over the 14th seed.
Collins, who has said that she will retire from professional tennis at the end of the year, had never reached the final of a Masters tournament before the current Miami Open, although she finished as runner-up to Ashleigh Barty at the 2022 Australian Open.
