Key events
Alcaraz breaks in second game of first set!
First set: Paul 0-2 Alcaraz* (*denotes next server)
Paul comes to net early in the point, but Alcaraz punishes a timid volley for love-15. Alcaraz then donates a couple of points on backhand unforced errors before Paul slots his first winner for 40-15. Paul crushes a 130mph first serve on the next point but misses a forehand in the rally for 40-30. Alcaraz then settles a 12-shot rally with a forehand winner for deuce. A pressure point already for Paul in his opening service game. Paul wins the next point on a forehand winner but makes another unforced error on the next point for deuce again. Another misfire off the backhand by Paul gives Alcaraz his first break-point chance of the evening, but Paul saves it behind a booming 129mph serve. Another unforced error by Paul gives Alcaraz a second look at a break but Paul saves that one, too, with a forehand winner after Alcaraz drop-shots off the kick serve. Alcaraz mints a third break-point chance when Alcaraz gets the better over an 11-shot exchange, but Paul erases it with another big serve.
Paul wins the next point but Alcaraz gets it back to deuce yet again with a brilliant topspin lob winner that paints the baseline. Yet another unforced error off the forehand side gives Alcaraz a fourth break-point opportunity and this time he converts!
It’s first blood to the Spaniard after a marathon game spanning 18 points and more than 10 minutes. Paul got 15 of 18 first serves in (83%) and saved three break points but couldn’t nail down the hold.
First set: *Paul 0-1 Alcaraz (*denotes next server)
A quick start for Alcaraz, who breezes through his opening service game and holds at love, closing with three blistering forehand winners after an unforced error by Paul off the backhand side.
Not much longer now. The players have made their entrances on to Court Philippe Chatrier for tonight’s match. We’ll be under way once they’re through their warm-ups.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Court Philippe Chatrier for tonight’s match between Carlos Alcaraz and Tommy Paul. The Spaniard continues his title defense against the 12th-seeded American in the men’s quarter-finals on Court Philippe Chatrier in a high-stakes rematch of their Olympic quarter-final from last year, which Alcaraz won in straight sets.
The 22-year-old Spaniard leads the head-to-head 4–2 and enters the match as the clear favorite. He has a 19–1 record on clay this season, leads the ATP tour in wins (34) and titles (three), and is on an 11-match winning streak at Roland Garros. A victory today would make him the first defending men’s champion to reach the semi-finals in Paris since Rafael Nadal in 2021.
Paul is attempting to break new ground. The American has never beaten a top-10 player at a grand slam and holds an 0–4 record against top-10 opponents on clay. He is also 0–2 in his career against top-two players on this surface. But the 28-year-old has already made history this fortnight by reaching the quarter-finals on clay, grass, and hard courts. He won the boys’ title at Roland Garros a decade ago and is now chasing his second major semi-final after reaching the last four in Melbourne in 2023.
Paul and Frances Tiafoe are the first American men to reach the Roland Garros quarter-finals in the same year since 1996. Tiafoe bowed to Lorenzo Musetti earlier today. But if Paul scores the upset, he’d become the first American man to beat a top-10 opponent in Paris since Jan-Michael Gambill in 2000. No American man has reached the semi-finals here since Andre Agassi in 1999.
Alcaraz has already defeated three opponents this week, including 13th seed Ben Shelton in four sets, and has dropped only two sets in the tournament. He is bidding for a seventh career Grand Slam semi-final and his third in a row in Paris.
This will be the third meeting between Alcaraz and Paul in the past year. Alcaraz won both previous encounters, including a four-set victory at Wimbledon and a straight-sets win at the Olympics. Paul’s last win came in Toronto two years ago, when he stunned Alcaraz in the quarter-finals.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look back at today’s day session action.
