Carlos Alcaraz was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Toronto Masters 1000 against the American Tommy Paul, who had already defeated him last year in this same tournament. The Murcian tennis player, who had a winning streak of 14 matches in a row, experienced several unusual moments of anger during this 6-3, 4-6 and 6-3 defeat against Paul, number 14 on the ATP.
The man from El Palmar was already on the brink of elimination in the round of 16 against Hubert Hurkacz, against whom he survived by winning the last two sets in the tiebreak.
With the same irregular tennis, Alcaraz ended up conceding this Friday just his fifth defeat in 54 games this season, in which he has won six trophies, including two Masters 1000 (Indian Wells and Madrid) and Wimbledon, his second Grand Slam.
In front of the press, the Spaniard tried to focus on the positive aspects of his week in Toronto, one of the tournaments leading up to the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the season. “I did some things right here, but everything can be better. Even if you played (one of) your best games », he pointed out. “Right now I have to improve many things, gain more confidence in my game.”
Tommy Paul, who has only one ATP title to his credit (Stockholm, 2021), will face in his first Masters 1000 semifinals the winner of the last quarterfinal match on Friday between the Italian Jannik Sinner and the French Gael Monfils. The other semifinal will be played by the Spanish Alejandro Davidovich and the Australian Alex De Miñaur.
Although this time he landed in Canada as the new head of the circuit, Alcaraz revived this Friday the same nightmare from last year against Tommy Paul. The American had already defeated him in his 2022 debut in Canada, just weeks before Alcaraz opened his big trophy case at the US Open.
“It helps to know that you can beat your opponent,” Paul acknowledged after his win on Friday. “You never want to walk on the court and think, ‘I don’t know if I can beat this guy. “Today I played a good game. I really went for my punches,” he said of his first win against a world number one. «Against him you have to go for your blows from the beginning of the exchange and in that I felt very good today. That was the difference,” he explained.
Paul, his most uncomfortable rival
Faced with this uncomfortable rival, who now surpasses him 2-1 on his personal balance, Alcaraz started the duel with one of his worst sets of the year. The Wimbledon champion delivered serve to him in the first game and was upset with himself as he racked up four double faults and seven unforced errors in the opening set.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s unbelievable. How can you play tennis so badly? »He repeatedly asked himself in his Alcaraz chair after dropping his racket to the ground after losing the first set.
In the second, the Spaniard seemed to find a turning point when, down 2-3, he landed a mammoth shot under the legs that entered parallel to the line and brought the stands to their feet.
This genius brought one of the few smiles of the night to Alcaraz, who failed to come back in the tiebreaker set against a rocky Paul, who found the decisive break in the sixth game.
Following this disappointment, Alcaraz will compete next week at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 before defending his US Open title, which takes place from August 28 to September 10 in New York. “I have a few weeks before the US Open, but now I have to focus on Cincinnati,” Alcaraz stated. “I get a lot of lessons from this tournament.”
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