The three-peat Carlos Alcaraz pursuit at India Wells was Thursday evening when the Spaniards overcome Francisco Cerundo and faced Jack Draper.
Ben Shelton, 22, made headlines for a run in his hometown soil, but was stopped by a British draper.
The 13th seeded draper faces second seed Alkaraz, the second defending champion. The defending champions expanded their winning streak at the Indian Wells to 16 games with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory at Cerundolo.
On another cold and dull night in the California desert, Alkaraz fought back from 1-4 in the second set, coming up with a break and two love services, forced a tiebreaker, maintained a bid to join Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, winning three straight Indian Wells titles as the only man.
Alcaraz had to save breakpoints in each of the first three service games. However, after a 4-3 highlighted hold, he got his first break in the contest with a skillful volley, making him exactly as he was on his first set.
After sliding to pop the drop volley winner on the net for a set point, Alcaraz excavated a deep forehand where Cerundolo could barely get a racket.
However, the second and first broke was Cerundo, who ultimately held the ninth breakpoint of the match 4-1.
He couldn’t hold back the No. 3 in the world, but he took a 5-2 lead on the tiebreaker on his way to victory.
“It was really hard to start the game,” said Alcaraz, who looked more comfortable in windy weather than a day ago.
“He got a lot of opportunities on the first set,” Alkaraz said. “I’m happy to save them all and take the only thing I had.
“I wasn’t as clear as yesterday, but I did what I had to do, and that’s the purpose.”
Draper took the opening set against Shelton in one break against Shelton, down 0-3 with two sets of SlugFest.
Shelton’s 32 forced errors included five double faults.
Russia’s Danil Medvedev was runner-up to Alkaraz in each of the last two years, coming in after a breakdown in the wild winds that beat Arthur Phils 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (9/7).
World Number Six has booked a semi-final meeting with Denmark’s Holgaloon, the winner of Talong Leakspool, 5-7, 6-0, 6-3.
Sixth-in-time Grand Slam finalist Medvedev threw out 20-year-old Phil 2-4 in the third set of a crash, as Gust Winds flew through the stadium courts.
The French Phil was showing stunning maturity in the face of Medvedev’s terrifying defensive skills.
He slashed out the forced error that hurt his first set, which easily won his first set and kept him calm.
However, Medvedev was not denied and won with a third match point after forcing Tie Breaker when Fils pushed the backhand volley for a long time.
Medvedev, who has only won one of the three sets of tiebreakers in the last nine times, lost pure joy when he won five after securing his victory in 2 hours and 25 minutes and retaining his first title bid since 2023.
“We lost a lot of tight games this year that we could have won. We should have won,” Medvedev said. “I lost a lot of tight games where it went a little 50-50 and the more it turned out to be, the more tight moments I could lose confidence.
“I was happy I got through the line because he saved some match points and had a break lead in the third. I’m just happy I won.”
Medvedev faced another young gun from Rune and entered the scene in 2022 with a victory over Novak Djokovic in the Paris Masters Finals.
Rune has struggled frequently since then, but after dropping the first set, he dominated Greekspool, the 43rd place Dutchman who removed top-seeded Alexander Zverev in the second round.
Meanwhile, the Madison Keys extended her winning streak to 16 games, reaching the women’s semi-finals with a 6-1, 6-1 wipeout of wildcard entries.
The Australian Open Champion needed just 65 minutes to maintain the end of their rematch with top-seeded Arena Sabalenka, who defeated Ludmira Samsonova 6-2, 6-3.
Keys defeated Sabalenka in three sets in January at Melbourne Park, denying his third consecutive title.