Indian Wells: Carlos Alcaraz marches on with dominant straight set win over Grigor Dimitrov

Alcaraz has now made the last eight in 15 of his 27 participations at Masters 1000 tournaments.

This statistic means that the former world No. 1 has now made at least the last eight at 55.6% of such ATP tournaments - joining four other all-time greats to do so (since 1990). Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Stefan Edberg have all done so.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion has, so far, reached 95 last eight appearances out of 131 events, leading to a 72.5% rate.

Meanwhile, Nadal made the quarter-finals in 99 out of 130 Masters 1000 events that the injury-plagued Spaniard played in. He leads the pack with a rate of 76.2%.

The Swiss made 87 quarter-finals out of 138 participations - a 63% rate.

Lastly, Edberg reached a lower 47 quarter-final appearances, but did so with similarly lower tournament participation at 81 - a 58% rate.

All five players - including Alcaraz - have notably reached the status of world No. 1.

The Spaniard has now won 30 of his last 32 sets at Indian Wells and is looking to capture his third trophy at the tournament, with Alcaraz stating: "Every time that I [am] playing here in this court, I just feel great, the conditions here, the court, the balls. I think every day is a little bit of wind which I like playing with.

So I think everything suits pretty well to my game, to my style. I have time to reach the ball when I'm defending. I have time to make good positions to attack during the points.

If I have to compare this court, this stadium to the one I feel really well or the one I feel like unbeatable, I don't know."

The four-time Grand Slam champion also has a chance to close the gap with Alexander Zverev and, even world No. 1 Jannik Siner - with the Italian banned from playing professional tennis until May.

However, in usual Alcaraz fashion, he remained candid about his main goals: "I'm not thinking really much about recovering the No 1 in two or three months. I mean, that could make me feel extra pressure with that.

"So as I said, I'm just focused on every day and every tournament, because if I'm doing the right things, if I'm just focused on every day and the things I have to improve, the result is gonna be there and then the No 1 is going to come after.

"Just right now, I'm focused on this tournament, Indian Wells, and I want to still play good tennis. Hopefully make the final or lift the trophy. That's my goal here."

However, Alcaraz will be looking to go another step further than the quarter-finals at Indian Wells - next facing Francisco Cerundolo, who defeated Alex de Minaur 7-3, 6-3  on Wednesday.

The two players have played once, with Alcaraz leading 1-0.

READ MORE: Carlos Alcaraz has his eyes on the prize, not world number one Jannik Sinner