Carlos Alcaraz pleased with his performance after win against Dennis Shapovalov

Carlos Alcaraz registered a commanding 6-2, 6-4 win over Shapovalov in the third round of the Indian Wells Masters on Monday. The Spaniard was able to bring his best to the court as he registered his 14th consecutive win at the BNP Paribas Open.

The two-time champion was pleased with his performance after going past the Canadian in straight sets. The World No.3 added five grams of weight to his racquet during the off-season and he is happy with the change.

“I was looking for some specific moments of the match of shots that I thought I was able to improve my game a little bit,” Alcaraz said when asked of the change. “When I was running or some specific shots. I felt really good playing with those five grams more. I felt the ball. It was flying. So I just started to play with it, and I think it was a great change for me.

“I can control it. The ball is totally the same, but it feels like when I hit it, when I hit it well, it goes stronger. I think, for the opponent, it is more difficult to control it. That’s my feeling.”

On the other hand, Shapovalov recently won his maiden ATP 500 title in Dallas and had a 10-4 record in the season before this game. However, Alcaraz looked in full control of the match, breaking the left-hander’s serve on four occasions.

“I’m just really pleased about my performance today, about everything I have done,” said Alcaraz, who raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set. “I knew at the beginning of the match that I had to be really focused. I had to start the match really strong, knowing it was going to be a really tough battle. Just really happy that I was able to do it.

“Denis is a great player. He’s been playing really good tennis lately. He started the season really strong with really powerful shots.”

Alcaraz will next take on 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16 on Thursday.