New York (AFP) – Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, gaining confidence with every match, cruised into the US Open quarter-finals on Sunday with a comprehensive victory over Tommy Paul. The second-seeded Spaniard, playing his first tournament after a four-month absence with a right wrist injury, beat Paul 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to reach his fifth quarter-final at Flushing Meadows, where he won the first of his seven Grand Slam titles back in 2022.
“Really happy to see where my level is right now,” Alcaraz said. “Beating Tommy Paul is always great feedback to see where you are, and (I’m) just really happy about everything I’ve done today. I think I returned pretty well. I saw really well the game today, what I had to do in every moment, using the right things in every moment. So I’m just really happy.”
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The 23-year-old, who claimed his seventh Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, had admitted to some trepidation as he opted to make his injury return at the final Grand Slam of the year. After wins over Roman Safiullin, Jaime Faria, and Wu Yibing, Alcaraz pointed to some rust – a few more forehand errors than he liked to see and some suspect decision-making on court. But he put it all together against Paul, his first top-25 opponent of the tournament.
Alcaraz has now won seven of nine meetings with the American, and he dominated on Sunday, firing 33 winners from all points of the compass as he moved fluidly around the court, adjusting his return position to keep Paul off-balance. Alcaraz finally gained the first break of the contest in the final game of a tight first set. From there, it was almost all Alcaraz. He broke Paul twice in the second set and again early in the third.
He finished it off in style as he saved a pair of break points in the final game, the second with a swinging forehand volley followed by a forehand winner to set up the only match point he needed. Paul certainly didn’t see many weaknesses in the Spaniard’s game. “He’s still hitting his forehand hard and off the court,” Paul said. “I feel like he’s maybe mixing things up on the return a little bit more. I think going into the match I saw his first-serve speed maybe was dropped a little bit from before he took time off, but I thought he made up with it with his first ball after his serve.”
It still wasn’t perfect, Alcaraz said. “I just had to be hard with myself, saying again the serves can be better,” he said. “But I’m just happy, and I’m going to enjoy this moment, for sure.”
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