By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) -Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz played too fast and too aggressively for American Tommy Paul on Tuesday as the defending champion raced through their French Open quarter-final in straight sets and 94 minutes.
Paul was mauled by the Spaniard in an eye-popping near-flawless 6-0 6-1 6-4 performance with Alcaraz firing 40 winners in the process.
“Not particularly fun,” Paul told reporters. “He played some great tennis, returned very well, had me on my backfoot 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.”
The world number 12, who had spent close to 11 hours on court in his previous rounds, said he had tried to slow the match down in an effort to shake his opponent out of his rhythm.
“Just waiting for the chair umpire to say ‘time’,” Paul said. “I felt like I was sitting down and there were 20 seconds left and Carlos was already up.”
The American put up somewhat of a fight in the third set but had trouble with a nagging abdominal muscle injury and was also feeling pain in his adductors.
“I felt better today. I want to win the match but pretty early on it was pretty obvious I was not moving amazing,” Paul said.
“Everyone bought tickets for the night session so I thought I try my best. Obviously I did not want it to go like that.”
Paul said he was still planning to defend his title at Queen’s in London later this month ahead of Wimbledon after a check on the injuries.
“That’s the plan. It’s my ab(dominal) and the adductors. A couple of things. We are going to figure that out in the next couple of days,” he said.
Alcaraz will face Lorenzo Musetti in the last four after the Italian downed American Frances Tiafoe in four sets.
(Reporting by Karolos GrohmannEditing by Christian Radnedge)
Comments