But by once again “being present” in the moment, the American escaped that jam and surged to a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory, advancing to his fifth ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final and his first since Cincinnati in 2024.<\/p>\n
“I did a lot of work in being comfortable being uncomfortable, and I put myself in those positions often,” Tiafoe said of his late escape. “It’s like when you’re running a bunch of sprints, you’re not thinking about the 15 more you’ve got to do. You think about the one ahead. And so that’s kind of where I was at.<\/p>\n
“Down 0\/40, worry about 0\/40, down 15\/40, worry about 15\/40, and so on and so forth. Ultimately, just be where your feet are.”<\/p>\n
The victory set up a quarter-final showdown on home soil against Jannik Sinner<\/a> for Tiafoe, who holds a 1-4 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against the Italian.<\/p>\n While Tiafoe was not thrilled with his tennis against Atmane, and knows he’ll need to play better against the No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, he was happy with his ability to grind out the result. “Emotionally I was a little spent from yesterday, obviously,” he said. “Physically, I’m feeling pretty good, but more on the emotional side… but still winning anyway. No one cares.”<\/p>\n Alexander Zverev<\/a> closed Tuesday’s play with a 7-6(4), 7-6(1) victory against Quentin Halys<\/a>. The 2018 Miami finalist has now reached the quarter-finals or better in six of the past seven ATP Masters 1000s; he’s also advanced to the quarters at both Indian Wells and Miami in the same season for the second time (2024).<\/p>\n By beating the No. 111 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, the German extended his winning streak against players outside the Top 100 to 16 matches, dating back to 2024.<\/p>\n For the second time in his three Miami matches, Zverev won without facing a break point:\u00a0“It’s a shot that’s working well and I hope will continue to work well,” he said of his booming serve after hitting 16 aces, according to Infosys ATP Stats. “Today, both of us were serving massive. I didn’t have many break chances.”<\/p>\n Through to the last eight for the fifth time in Miami \ud83d\udc4f@MiamiOpen<\/a> | #MiamiOpen<\/a> | @AlexZverev<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/a69phqhUEy<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 ATP Tour (@atptour) March 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The German earned six break chances on return \u2014 four at 5-5 in the first set and two that doubled as match points at 5-4 in the second. While he could not convert in the face of big serving from Halys, he made amends by jumping out to early leads in both tie-breaks.<\/p>\n Next up for Zverev is Francisco Cerundolo<\/a>, who advanced to his fourth Miami quarter-final in five tries with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Ugo Humbert<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n