Carlos Alcaraz is one step closer to defending his U.S. Open title.
While there was some concern over the possibility, considering Alcaraz came to Flushing on the heels of his longest professional layoff due to a wrist injury, the speedy Spaniard looks primed to earn a shot at becoming the first men’s singles player to repeat in Flushing in just under two decades.
Steamrolling No. 20-seeded American Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the Round of 16 in less than 2 ½ hours Sunday afternoon, Alcaraz continues to ramp up his game at the right time.
“He was playing on a different level than me,” Paul said. “I think there are a lot of things I could have done better, but I could have done a lot of things better and still lost that match.”
Alcaraz will now face the winner of Ben Shelton and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who squared off late Sunday on Ashe.
Paul was competing in the fourth round of the U.S. Open for just the third time, after the 29-year-old went at least four sets in all three of his previous wins. That included his upset victory over the No. 15-seeded Alexander Bublik in a five-setter in Round 3 earlier this week.
Still, Alcaraz — who has dropped just one set since his return — made it look like a practice match at times against a top 20 player on the tour.
“I’m 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 just really happy about everything I’ve done today. I think I returned pretty well. I saw really, really well the game today, what I had to do in every moment. Using the right things in every moment. Just really happy, hopefully keep it going.”
This was always going to be a long shot for Paul, who has now lost six in a row to Alcaraz, as well as seven of their nine total meetings. Paul hasn’t beaten Alcaraz since the 2023 ATP Masters 1000 Canada, when the latter was just 20 years old.
During his on-court interview, Alcaraz said he was able to just play his game and be aggressive.
He ultimately won 93 percent of his service games, dropping just one for the whole match.
The way he was returning the ball, however, was just as sharp. Alcaraz simply dominated from the baseline and won 76 percent of deep returns against Paul.
“On first serve, he did a good job on most every ball he had his strings on, he put it back in the court and deep,” Paul said. “And then on second serves, I mean, he was kind of mixing up his stance a little bit. Starting early in the match, he was closer to the baseline trying to take my second serve early, and then he backed up into the first and most of the second serves backed up, took all my second serves from deep.
“Basically, after he got the break in the third, he went back up again. I think he was trying to apply extra pressure by coming in. I think he definitely wanted to make points quick and kind of rush me.”
