The 18-year-old shooting star defeated Briton Daniel Evans after 85 minutes 6: 4.6: 3 and celebrated his first victory in an indoor tournament. In the round of 16, the Spaniard now meets Scottish star Andy Murray, who beat Polish number 5 Hubert Hurkacz after 2:40 with 6: 4.6: 7 (6), 6: 3.

For Murray it was the first victory in the tenth game with a top 20 player this year, an important victory on the long way home. The 34-year-old Briton, who won in Vienna in 2014 and 2016, is playing with an artificial hip and working closer and closer to his debut. He keeps his clean slate in Vienna and is still undefeated at mayoralty.

“It’s great. It’s a great tournament here and I love playing here. It’s great to be here again,” said Murray, visibly relieved while still on the pitch.

Murray had already found match point in the second set tie-break and could have left the pitch after 108 minutes. But Hurkacz fled in the third set and immediately took over for the Scots. But the three-time Grand Slam winner stayed on, managed the immediate recovery and broke the Pole’s serve a second time to bring the score to 4-2. In the end, it took almost an hour longer, but the Scotsman then used the third match point with his tenth ace.

“It was a very difficult game today, Hubert had a great season and I lost to him twice,” said Murray, recalling losses to Cincinnati and Metz this year. “It was not easy to come back after missing the match point in the second set, but I kept fighting. It will still be very difficult against Carlos, he is one of the best boys in the world. “

Previously, the young Alcaraz star had celebrated his first indoor victory. “There are a lot of great players here. I just want to play good tennis so we’ll see what I can achieve,” he said when asked about his goals in town hall. El Palmar’s right-hander, coached by former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero, surprised the US Open with a place in the quarter-finals and on the way, including defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets in the third round.

Alcaraz has now also written to Austria for the first time. On his Kitzbühel debut in July, he sensationally lost in the first round to Alexander Erler of Tyrol.

Georgian Nikolos Basilashvili had previously been the first player to reach the round of 16 in a 2:33-hour base fight. He beat Spaniard Pablo Carrena Busta 7: 5,4: 6,6: 3. On the second court “#Glaubandich” at Heumarkt this year, Australian Alex de Minaur beat Viennese winner of 2018, the South -African Kevin Anderson, after 1h31 with 6: 3.7: 6 (3). The Australian will now face either number two Olympic champion Alexander Zverev (GER) or Serbian Filip Krajinovic on Wednesday.

The only representative of Austria in the individual competition in the absence of convalescent Dominic Thiem is Dennis Novak. The national number two will face Italian qualifier Gianluca Mager in the second game on Tuesday after 5.30pm.