American Tommy Paul on Friday ended top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz’s winning streak at 14 matches, beating the 20-year-old Spanish star 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the Canadian Open semi-finals.
Alcaraz had the shot of the match with a between-the-legs winner in the second set, but could not keep up with Paul in the third.
“I played a really good match. I really went after my shots,” Paul said. “You can’t start any points on your heels against him or he’ll take advantage of that. So you really have to go after your shots early in the rally and I was feeling really good on the first-strike tennis. That was the difference today.”
Photo: AP
Alcaraz leads the tour with six tournament wins and 49 match victories against only five losses.
“He’s really tough on every surface,” Alcaraz said. “I mean he’s a mix of everything. It makes him really, really tough.”
The 26-year-old Paul won in Stockholm in 2021 for his lone tour title. He also beat Alcaraz last year in Montreal in the tournament.
“It helps knowing that you can beat your opponent,” Paul said. “You never want to walk on the court and be like: ‘I don’t know if I can beat this guy.’ It’s the attitude you’ve got to have no matter who you are playing.”
Paul faces seventh seed Jannik Sinner of Italy, who won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 over Gael Monfils of France.
In the afternoon, second seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia dropped out with a 7-6 (9/7), 7-5 loss to Australia’s Alex de Minaur.
De Minaur faces Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the semi-finals.
Davidovich Fokina beat American Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-2 in the opening quarter-final.
In the women’s singles, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan outlasted Daria Kasatkina of Russia 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (10/8) in a match that ended at 2:54am yesterday.
“I’ve played three sets, tough battles, but like this, honestly, physically it’s really tough,” Rybakina said on court after the match. “It’s so late. I’ve never played this late. Thank you so much. Hopefully, somehow I can recover for tomorrow.”
Rybakina faces Liudmila Samsonova of Russia in the semi-finals. Samsonova beat Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4.
Poland’s Iga Swiatek faces Jessica Pegula of the US in the other semi after Pegula defeated compatriot Coco Gauff 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 and Swiatek eliminated Danielle Collins of the US 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and partner Yang Zhaoxuan of China reached the semi-finals with a 2-6, 6-3, 10-4 win over the US’ Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez of Australia.
They are to play Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara today after the Japanese duo had a walkover win in the quarters.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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