Carlos Alcaraz moves into the last eight in Doha after second-set comeback against Royer

[p]The world number one, who became the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam at the Australian Open earlier this month, notched his ninth straight win of 2025 with a [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/alcaraz-garfia-c-UkhgIFEq/royer-v-IFGPWCuI/?mid=4S4GTRCG"]6-2, 7-5[/a] success despite trailing 5-2 in the second set.[/p][p]"There were some moments when I thought about a third set, I'm not going to lie, but obviously it was just a small place in my mind that was thinking that," [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/alcaraz-garfia-carlos/UkhgIFEq/"]Alcaraz[/a] said.[/p][p]"The rest was working to find solutions, to find the right way again."[/p][p]The 22-year-old will play Russian seventh seed [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/khachanov-karen/4bNPtZT5/"]Karen Khachanov[/a] for a semi-final berth on Thursday. Alcaraz has won all five of his previous meetings with Khachanov, losing only one set in the process.[/p][embed guid="aa54d350-5f6c-44b6-9484-238758ad61fd" url="https://x.com/TennisTV/status/2024214689253572729/history" social-type="twitter" /][p]Alcaraz raced through the opening set against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/royer-valentin/IFGPWCuI/"]Royer[/a], breaking twice without facing a break point.[/p][p]But the 60th-ranked Royer raised his level in the second, missing a break point in the second game but making no mistake shortly afterwards to stretch 3-1 in front.[/p][p]Alcaraz immediately carved out an opportunity to hit straight back in the next game, but Royer managed to consolidate his break.[/p][p]The underdog could not close out the set when he served for it, though, as Alcaraz broke back in game nine.[/p][p]The Spaniard made Royer pay, eventually reeling off five consecutive games to wrap up victory.[/p][p]He did so after rival [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sinner-jannik/6HdC3z4H/"]Jannik Sinner[/a], playing his first tournament since losing to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/djokovic-novak/AZg49Et9/"]Novak Djokovic[/a] in the Australian Open semi-finals last month, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/tennis-doha-atp-singles-focused-sinner-eases-past-popyrin-to-progress-into-doha-quarter-finals/M3MbAEvQ/"]eased to a 6-3, 7-5 win[/a] over Australian [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/popyrin-alexei/fJjLpuNq/"]Alexei Popyrin[/a].[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/tsitsipas-stefanos/hb6oWfc6/"]Stefanos Tsitsipas[/a] reached his first quarter-final since the Barcelona Open last April, beating former world number one [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/medvedev-daniil/O8qG0Nhb/"]Daniil Medvedev[/a] 6-3, 6-4.[/p][p]France's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/arthur-fils/IoIhUqIN/"]Arthur Fils[/a], playing only his fourth tournament since withdrawing from last year's French Open injured, saw off compatriot [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/halys-quentin/EDve8Ljh/"]Quentin Halys[/a] 6-1, 7-6 (9/7).[/p]