Playing in his first tournament in four months following a wrist injury, Carlos Alcaraz has shown no signs of rust at the US Open, breezing into the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Tommy Paul on Sunday in New York.
Alcaraz, a seven-time Grand Slam winner and defending US Open champion, has dropped just one set over his first four matches.
The 23-year-old Spanish star and world No 3 broke the 29-year-old American's serve to clinch the first set, broke him again twice early in the second set and once again early in the third en route to the two-hour, 21-minute victory.
Alcaraz leads the head-to-head series 7-2 and has defeated Paul at all four Grand Slam events, becoming only the 10th man to achieve that feat in the Open Era.
"I played my game. I tried to play my style," Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. "Tommy is such a talented player. His shots are pretty dangerous and sometimes it is really difficult to control the ball when it comes to you. I just tried to be ready for a battle and tried to be aggressive all the time.
"I tried not to let him stay [high up] on the court and I think I did pretty well to put so much pressure on return games, which for me helped a lot to play relaxed, to play calm and think clearly. I'm really happy with the performance today."
Alcaraz has won 18 straight matches at majors, a personal high that includes his 2025 US Open win and January's Australian Open title, which made him the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam.
"I think so," Alcaraz told reporters when asked if he felt he was back to 100 per cent physically. "I didn't expect to reach [at least] the quarter-finals here every year since 2021, so that shows how special this place is to me.
"It shows how good I play every time I come here. It doesn't matter that I was out for four and a half months: Every time that I come here, I play my best."
Shelton makes quick work of Tsitsipas
Second seed Alcaraz, who is 26-3 this season, will face No 8 seed Ben Shelton in the quarter-finals after the American took care of Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quickest men's match of the day, a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win in 1 hour, 52 minutes.
After Shelton dropped one set in each of his first three matches, he dominated his last-16 match, finishing with 12 aces and one double fault.
"My team told me if I didn't show up fully focused today that they were going to leave," Shelton said on-court when asked what the difference was in this match. "I think it was all in my head. I was focused today, played a complete match from start to finish. Really happy with this performance."
The 2023 US Open semi-finalist is riding serious momentum into his match against Alcaraz, who is 3-0 against Shelton all-time. One of those wins came at a Grand Slam in the 2025 French Open.
"Special tennis," Shelton said of what it will take to oust Alcaraz. "I think the level that he's been playing at is really impressive. To not play for five months, come out and do what he does so far this tournament has been superhuman ... I think it's going to be fireworks on Tuesday night."
Tiafoe dominates
No 11 seed Frances Tiafoe continued his dominance at the Louis Armstrong Stadium with a 7-6, 6-4, 7-6 win over seventh-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev to reach the quarter-finals for the fourth time in his career.
The win was Tiafoe's 25th hard-court victory of the season – the most on tour – and improved his all-time record at Louis Armstrong to 10-0.
"It has been amazing playing on this court, the energy, man," Tiafoe said. "It is like the people's court. I am loving the energy for sure."
Tiafoe, a semi-finalist at the US Open in 2022 and 2024, will aim to make it three trips in five years when he faces fellow American Alex Michelsen, who pulled off another upset Sunday, beating 27th-seeded Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.
