Carlos Alcaraz sent out a big warning to his rivals at Roland Garros after a sensational display saw him to dismantle Tommy Paul in a one-sided quarter-final in Paris.
Alcaraz set up a semi-final clash against Lorenzo Musetti after a devastating 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 victory in a match that was done and dusted in just 96 minutes.
With his first serve firing on all cylinders and his forehand in blistering form, world No 12 Paul was blown away in front of a packed night session crowd, with Alcaraz admitting his brilliance ensured they had a brief night out watching the defending champion hit top gear.
“I’m sorry you wanted to watch more tennis. I had to do my work,” Alcaraz told the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd afterwards.
“I could close my eyes and everything went in. “My feeling today was unbelievable. I was trying hit every shot at 100 per-cent. I was not thinking about anything else, just hitting forward and yeah, today was one of those matches that everything went in.
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“I’m just pleased with everything. We are in a quarter-final of a Grand Slam at Roland-Garros and this kind of match is never easy.
“I played against Tommy many, many times and every match was really, really difficult. He has beat me twice, so that helped me at the beginning of the match just to focus on my tennis.
“I tried to step on the court and really focus on my things, trying not to go down or let him get into the match again. I was trying to be focused during the whole match.”
Tommy Paul didn’t try to hide his disappointment, as he was handed one of his heaviest defeats in recent months.
“Not particularly fun,” Paul told reporters. “He played some great tennis, returned very well, had me on my back foot all the time, playing so fast.
“Even on the changeovers he was getting up so fast with 20 seconds left. I thought I have got to slow down. He played some amazing tennis.
“He was on offence and that was not what I needed tonight. I did the best I could.
“Everyone bought tickets for the night session so I thought I try my best. Obviously, I did not want it to go like that.”
This was a sparkling display from Alcaraz and matches those served up by his great rival Jannik Sinner in the opening rounds of this year’s French Open.
Alcaraz and Sinner are by far the best two players in the tournament so far, with former world No 1 Mats Wilander expecting the pair to meet in the final on Sunday.
“I would expect Alcaraz and Sinner to be in the final because they have separated themselves from everyone else,” TNT Sports analyst Wilander told Tennis35 in an interview conducted at Roland Garros.
“If they get there, we will see an amazing match because Alcaraz is the one player who gives Sinner real trouble.
“The main reason why Sinner struggles against Alcaraz is he is so fast at doing everything. The other reason Jannik doesn’t like playing against him he has a big forehand and that can knock you off balance.
“The big thing with Sinner is he strikes the ball so hard and also the way he can strike it early, without making too many mistakes.
“That is too much for a lot of people, but Alacarz is so quick that he can get to a lot of the balls other players cannot reach.
“When Sinner has a forehand and time to hit it, the other players have to guess left or right to have a chance to get it. Carlos doesn’t have that problem so much as he is super fast.
“I was in the front row watching their Rome final a few weeks back and for the first half an hour it looked like Alcaraz was struggling to hang with Sinner.
“Then he started to absorb the power coming at him and found a way to swing it in his favour.
“Okay, Sinner could have won the first set of that match and it could have been a different result, but you could see that Alcaraz was getting used to absorbing the pace and when he then got Jannik doing things he didn’t want to do, the match turned in his favour.”
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