Carlos Alcaraz gets into rhythm, beats local favorite Tommy Paul to reach US Open quarterfinals

NEW YORK CITY: There was an early moment in the US Open fourth-round match when Tommy Paul was drawn wide, lunged forward and out of the blue smashed a forehand winner around the post and past a stunned Carlos Alcaraz. The crowd gasped and a smile appeared on Paul’s face. That was the kind of tennis the 29-year-old needed to play just to make the match against the defending champion competitive.Instead, it was Alcaraz’s forehand that lit up Arthur Ashe. The Spaniard ripped it from virtually anywhere on the court, threading the needle and neutralizing the American’s serve with both placement and timing. The second seed finished with 33 winners, including 17 from the forehand side.The world number three, returning from a four-month injury-enforced layoff, advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win, dropping just one set in four matches.Sunday marked the ninth meeting between the pair, with Alcaraz now 7-2. Paul, the world number one, has won two of his first three matches in 2022-23 but admitted on Sunday that he is nowhere near the level he wants.“It sucks! It felt like he was playing on a whole different level than me. It sucks because you feel like sh@#t!” Paul said. “But at the same time, you learn a lot every time you play him. Every time I played him, we went to the practice court with new ideas about what he does well and what I can try and put into my game.”The practice court also played a role in Alcaraz’s turnaround in Week 1.After his third-round win over China’s Yibing Wu, in which he managed just nine forehand winners while committing 19 unforced errors on the same side, the Spaniard got back to work.“For a tennis player, how you go to sleep is really important in terms of feeling. Especially when you win a match but you don’t feel like you hit the ball well, it’s better to go back to the practice court and then just hit for five to ten minutes. Just hit some balls when you’re not nervous or thinking about anything else. Leave the site feeling good.”Alcaraz left Flushing Meadows on Friday with a much better forehand.“I think everybody saw the difference in my forehand today,” he said.The 23-year-old, who swapped his espresso-brown gear for a black-and-white look, also noted that his Grand Slam days off now look very different to previous years.Golf was his favorite escape when he wanted to escape the pressure of the tennis court. But after a wrist injury, he can’t risk his wrist being subjected to the demands of the game. These days, his downtime is about recovery and preparation for the next round.Alcaraz will face eighth-seeded American Ben Shelton in the round of 16 on Tuesday. The 23-year-old got past Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 and is in his sixth major quarter-final and second at Flushing Meadows, where he reached the semi-finals in 2023.Meanwhile, Frances Tiafoe shocked 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (6) to claim one of his biggest wins of the season.Roared on by a home crowd, the 28-year-old world number 12 was pumped for his clash at Louis Armstrong Stadium as he reached the quarter-finals for the fourth time in New York.The two-time US Open semi-finalist had lost six of their previous seven meetings with Medvedev, but was sharper and more focused throughout the two-hour, 57-minute contest. Tiafoe will face compatriot Alex Michelsen in the round of 16.