“Full power? I think so”: Alcaraz sweeps Paul aside to storm into the US Open quarterfinals
Five months lost to a wrist injury looked a long way behind Carlos Alcaraz as the No. 2 seed dismantled No. 20 seed Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to reach a fifth US Open quarterfinal.
Carlos Alcaraz, US Open 2026 | © Andrew Schwartz/SIPA
Four and a half months of this season went to a right wrist injury, and Carlos Alcaraz spent Sunday evening in New York demonstrating how little of it had stuck, the Spanish No. 2 seed beating American No. 20 seed Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the US Open quarterfinals for the fifth time.
“I think so,” the defending champion answered the Spaniard on court afterwards when he was asked if he was back “full power”, and the numbers behind him did not argue.
They rarely do when a player finishes with 33 winners to his opponent’s 18 off an identical count of 32 unforced errors apiece. Alcaraz came forward 29 times and won 23 of those points, put 67% of first serves in play, and was broken once in 15 service games while taking four of the 14 break points he engineered.
Paul saved 10 of 14, which bought him time and nothing else. Across three sets the Spaniard won 99 of 173 points, a margin that a scoreline of three tight-looking sets rather flatters.
The one passage of genuine danger came with Alcaraz serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, where he slipped to 15-40. Two of the four break points Alcaraz faced all evening came in that game, and having erased them he took the next two as well, a crosscourt forehand winner bringing up match point and a service winner ending it at the first attempt.
Alcaraz has not lost at Flushing Meadows since 2024
The win was his 11th in a row at the US Open and his 18th in a row in hard-court majors, a streak that runs back through last year’s title here and this season’s Australian Open. It carried him to a 15th Grand Slam quarterfinal, and to within three matches of becoming the first man to defend the US Open since Roger Federer won five in succession from 2004 to 2008.
It also moved a career number. Alcaraz’s win rate in hard-court majors now stands at 86.79%, third in the Open era behind Novak Djokovic and Federer, whose 86.82% sits fractionally clear, and past Pete Sampras.
Paul still waiting on his first US Open quarterfinal
His own account of the match, delivered on court, was about denying Paul any room to settle. “Tommy’s such a talented player. I think his shots are pretty dangerous and sometimes pretty difficult to control the ball when it comes to you. So I just tried to be ready for the battle, to be ready to run if it matters, and trying to be aggressive all the time, trying not to let him stay on the court. So I just think I did it pretty well.”
The calm, he said, came from the other end of the exchange. “I just put so much pressure on the return games, which for me it helps a lot to play relaxed, to play calm, to think clearly.” Asked directly whether the two-time champion was back to full power after four and a half months away, he answered in four words and then made the case himself. “Except one year, since 2021 I make almost quarterfinal here. So that means how special this place is to me, that means how good I’m playing every time that I come here.”
For Paul, the record now reads quarterfinals at the Australian Open, Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, and four defeats short of one in New York. He had come into the tournament saying so plainly, and he leaves it in the fourth round for the second year running. He has now lost seven of nine against Alcaraz.
Alcaraz will play the winner of the fourth-round match between American No. 8 seed Ben Shelton and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece on Tuesday, with No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev, a former champion here, and American No. 11 seed Frances Tiafoe in the same half beyond that. Top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, the Roland-Garros champion, waits on the other side of the draw. Three more nights like this one and the wrist will be the least interesting thing about his summer.
US Open, men’s singles, fourth round schedule
A. Zverev [1] vs L. Darderi [21] – scheduled Monday
A. Gea (L) vs B. Van de Zandschulp – scheduled Monday
K. Khachanov vs L. Tien [14] – scheduled Monday
F. Cerundolo [24] vs A. Blockx [28] – scheduled Monday
D. Medvedev [7] vs F. Tiafoe [11] – Sunday, Louis Armstrong Stadium
A. Michelsen vs T. Etcheverry [27] – Sunday
B. Shelton [8] vs S. Tsitsipas – Sunday, Arthur Ashe Stadium, 7:00 PM
C. Alcaraz [2] d. T. Paul [20]: 6-4, 6-3, 6-4
