Carlos Alcaraz booked his spot in the Monte Carlo Masters with a semi-finals with a dominant 6-3 6-0 victory over Alexander Bublik, and then immediately apologised to his rival. Alcaraz and Bublik had never faced off on the professional circuit before, and their first meeting had the potential to be a cracker. But Alcaraz quickly poured water on the hopes of a thrilling match, as he won the last 10 games in a row.

The world No. 11 could do nothing but laugh as Alcaraz dominated and bagelled him in the second set to get the job done. There were no hard feelings between them, and Bublik was all smiles as they approached the net for the handshake. “Sorry, man,” the top seed told him.

“It’s okay, good luck,” Bublik replied. Alcaraz thanked him, and they both walked forward to shake hands with the umpire. Then, the Kazakh turned back to the world No. 1 and told him why it was such a one-sided match.

“We played in my worst conditions possible, bro,” Bublik grinned. Alcaraz laughed and told the two-time Halle champion that he was looking forward to facing off on grass courts, a surface the world No. 11 prefers.

Alcaraz got off to a very fast start against Bublik. He broke to lead 2-0 and had points for a double break, but the eighth seed stepped it up and got back on serve, reeling off three straight games. They were the only three games he won, however, and the reigning champion cruised into the semi-finals – and to a milestone 300th tour-level match win.

Afterwards, the top seed said: “First of all, I started pretty well the match. I had points to be two breaks up in the first set, I didn’t make it, and then all of a sudden, I think I lost a little bit the feeling of the ball.

“After that, I think he just pull off great shots, great games, that I had to run side to side a lot, try to defend my best. I save few games, which gave me a lot of confidence coming into the match again and playing aggressive and all of that stuff.”