In Miami, a day of surprises: Alcaraz defeated by Korda, Paolini eliminated and Sinner can close the gap.

Day of surprises in Miami: after the early eliminations of Jasmine Paolini and Ben Shelton, the world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz also fell, defeated by the American Sebastian Korda in three sets 6-3 5-7 6-4. This loss for the Spaniard gives No. 2 Jannik Sinner the chance to further close the gap in the ATP ranking.

March 22 does not bring good luck to the Spaniard, who also lost last year (even in the second round) to the Belgian Goffin. "In Miami, I hit rock bottom," the Spaniard said after recovering from that blow, but he had started this 2026 on a high note, with a victory in Melbourne and sixteen consecutive wins, before slipping at Indian Wells. Tonight, another setback in the second Masters event in the U.S.

The run of the best Italian player Paolini also ends in the third round of the fourth WTA 1000 of the season. The 30-year-old from Bagni di Lucca, No. 7 in the ranking and seeding, after a complicated debut (directly in the second round) in three sets against the left-handed American Taylor Townsend (No. 80 WTA), lost 5-7 6-2 7-5 after a battle lasting over two and a half hours to the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, No. 24 in the ranking and 25 in seeding, who had defeated the Ukrainian Daiana Yastremska (No. 54 WTA) in two sets.

Now Ostapenko will face the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, No. 8 in the ranking and 9 in seeding, coming off a semifinal at Indian Wells and the most successful player (20 wins) in this first part of 2026, or the American Haley Baptiste (No. 45 WTA). For her part, Paolini remains in Florida for the doubles tournament with Sara Errani. In the draw, Elisabetta Cocciaretto is no longer present, eliminated with the Croatian Ruzic by the pair Samsonova-Kenin (6-1, 6-3).

Quite below expectations for Paolini at the start of 2026 with a record of 9 wins and 8 losses: she secured a victory in the United Cup (against Jeanjean), two at the Australian Open (against Sasnovich and Frech), two in Merida (against Hon and Boulter) which allowed her to reach her first semifinal more than four months after Ningbo (October 2025), and two more at Indian Wells (against Potapova and Tomljanovic).

Moving to the men's tournament in Miami, another of the big surprises of this edition of the Miami Masters 1000 took place today, featuring Alexander Shevchenko. The Kazakh, ranked 84 in the world, eliminated Ben Shelton, who had not lost to an opponent with such a low ranking since last year's Miami tournament, when he was defeated by Coleman Wong, then ranked 192. "I loved every second of this match," said Shevchenko, who completed the comeback victory with a score of 6-7(3) 7-6(3) 6-3.