PARIS — It is powerful sufficient for any participant to cope with Carlos Alcaraz on the French Open. If you’re not at your best possible towards the defending champion, as was the case for Tommy Paul within the quarterfinals Tuesday night time, there isn’t any likelihood.
No. 2 seed Alcaraz returned to the semifinals at Roland-Garros for the third consecutive yr with a 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 12 Paul, who had his proper thigh closely taped and was unable to run, serve or hit groundstrokes at full pressure.
“I’ve felt higher, ?” mentioned Paul, who had leg and stomach muscle points in the course of the event. “Clearly, I went into the match like, ‘I wish to win the match.’ However fairly early on within the match, it was fairly apparent that I wasn’t transferring wonderful.”
Did not assist his trigger that Alcaraz was at his best.
“As we speak was a kind of days that you feel nice. You’re feeling like each shot was going to be in, each shot was going to be a winner,” Alcaraz mentioned. “You play with a variety of confidence. No worry of something.”
It took simply 52 minutes for him to gather the primary two units.
The 22-year-old Spaniard compiled a 23-5 edge in winners in that span, and the ultimate totals have been 40-13.
“He performed some nice tennis. Returned very properly. Had me on my again foot on a regular basis. Taking part in so quick,” Paul mentioned. “Even on the changeovers, I felt like he was getting up with 20 seconds left. I used to be like, ‘You bought to decelerate.’”
Issues bought extra aggressive within the third set, which Paul led 4-3 as some spectators at Court docket Philippe-Chatrier chanted his first title. However Alcaraz grabbed the subsequent three video games to wrap issues up after a little bit greater than 1 1/2 hours.
“At Grand Slams, the much less time you spend on court docket, it is nice to avoid wasting vitality for the subsequent matches,” mentioned Alcaraz, who’s searching for his fifth main trophy. “Can’t ask for a greater efficiency.”
He’s the primary reigning males’s champion in Paris to get again to the semifinals the subsequent yr since 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal in 2021.
He improved to 20-1 on purple clay this season and leads the boys’s tour with 35 wins and three titles.
Alcaraz’s opponent within the semifinals might be No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti, who eradicated No. 15 Frances Tiafoe in 4 units earlier Tuesday. The final two males’s quarterfinals are Wednesday: No. 1 Jannik Sinner vs. unseeded Alexander Bublik, and No. 3 Alexander Zverev vs. 24-time main champion Novak Djokovic.
Paul, a semifinalist on the 2023 Australian Open, and Tiafoe, a two-time semifinalist on the U.S. Open, have been the primary American males to get to the spherical of eight at Roland-Garros since Andre Agassi in 2003 — and the primary pair to take action in the identical yr since Jim Courier and Pete Sampras in 1996.
Since Agassi accomplished his profession Grand Slam by profitable the French Open in 1999, U.S. males are actually 1-60 towards opponents ranked within the prime 10 on the clay-court event.
