World No 1 Jannik Sinner recorded a routine 6-2 7-5 victory over British No 1 Cam Norrie to reach the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals.
Sinner won a sloppy 35-minute first set in which both players had more unforced errors than winners, breaking Norrie twice to put one foot in the next round.
The second set was a different story for the Brit, though, breaking back and holding serve against the Italian to take a 4-3 lead, but Sinner's quality eventually told, producing a crucial break at 5-5 and holding serve to take the match and secure an impressive round of 16 victory.
The Wimbledon champion will next face 19-year-old Madrid native Rafael Jodar in a mouth-watering quarter-final clash on Wednesday.
Jodar, fresh from a three-set victory over 27th seed Joao Fonseca on Sunday, thrilled his home crowd again with a ‌commanding 7-5 6-0 win over Czech Vit Kopriva in their last-16 meeting.
As for Norrie, he moves back into the world's top 20 for the first time since 2024.
"The start time was quite unusual for me. I don't know when the last time I played at 11 was. For me it doesn't matter what time. I try to do my best," Sinner told the ATP.
"For me there was a question if me or Jodar plays at 4pm. I think it's right that he plays at 4pm. He finished very late. At the same time I think we need to make some adjustments with scheduling out the day.
"Two matches from 8pm is very late. Even though you have one day in between, but still it's very, very late. You finish at 1.30am. You need to eat.
"You need to have treatment. It's very late. But we try to adapt ourself, our bodies, and minds. From my side it was a good performance today."
On beating Cam Norrie: ""We know each other quite well. We practiced a lot in the last tournaments also. We both kind of knew what to expect. I felt like I was serving quite well in important moments.
"This surface is very different than all the other surfaces. It's very tough to get the right feedback. Sometimes you feel like you're not playing your best but from the outside it seems like you are. Sometimes it's also the opposite.
"I'm very happy to be here in the quarters again. It's a tournament I haven't played a lot. So it means a lot to me. I'm happy to be through in two sets."
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