Champion Carlos Alcaraz, alerts deeper into the red clay of Roland Garros, fought with American Ben Shelton 7-6 (8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals of the French open. A hard fought victory on Sunday meant 100. Winning tour levels – achieved only in 119 matches – a performance that was improved only by Rafael Nadal (112 matches) among players who started their career in the open time.
Alcaraz’s clash with the Australian semifinalist Open was charged as a fire meeting – and certainly met expectations. Shelton was published in the opening set, attacked relentless aggressiveness and earned the set points, but Alcaraz held his nerves and forced the tense tiebreak. Although Shelton gained an early mini-gate in Tiebreaker, Alcaraz returned under pressure to make the first set.
The second set saw the Spaniard to find his rhythm. His explosive winners began to flow freely, while the unforced errors were crawled into Shelton’s game when he tried to intervene alcaraz’s brilliance clay clay. On 2-0 up, Alcaraz seemed to float towards the victory of direct sets.
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But Shelton showed his trademark Flair by breaking at the beginning of the third set. Although Alcaraz disintegrated to 4-4 levels, the momentum moved again as Shelton secured a major break in the final game to take the file. Despite this, the American faced a battle uphill to keep this energy to the fourth.
Alcaraz replied immediately, secured a premature break and maintained control to close the match in four sets after three hours and 19 minutes. The Philippe Chatrier Court has witnessed a bruised competition, a highly octane competition, with Alcaraz saving three set points in the opening set, and through his speed and fineness faced Shelton’s strong basic game.
The 22 -year -old Spaniard, who lasted nervous performance against Darir Dzumhur in the previous round, was Shelton Prosper and fearless aggression. Yet world number three held firmly when it mattered the most.
“Today I fought against myself, in my opinion,” Alcaraz thought after victory. “I tried to calm down when I was angry, angry and said things I shouldn’t have. I’m really happy that I didn’t allow these thoughts to get better out of me. I tried to calm down and on.”
Alcaraz missed his lonely point in the opening 12 games and took 1-4 in Tiebreak before he came back and earned on a mesh shot from Shelton to take the first set. Shelton, known for his athleticism and shot, was still attacking, but Alcaraz’s resistance and Craft High Court saw him survived the marathon opening game in the second set before breaking with heavy forehands and a smart shot.
Although Shelton threw 3-1 in the third lead, Alcaraz remained folded and raised his level to close the door in the fourth. He sealed the victory by the turbulent forehand at his second match point and released the roar of relief and triumph.
“We both have great respect for each other,” Alcaraz added. “Every time we face, we bring a high level and play good tennis. He’s a really powerful player and can do any shot … He’s an incredible player. We’ve played a complete tennis – big shots coming to the net, big forehands. We stayed there throughout the match.
Alcaraz is chasing his fifth Grand Slam title this fourteen days and the third crown of the clay-group of the season, which has already won the events of ATP Masters 1000 in Monte-Carl and Rome. The aim is to become the third man in this century to successfully defend his crown Roland Garros, joined Rafael Nadal (10 times) and Gustavo Kurerten (2001).
Another for the Spaniard is American Tommy Paul, which leads 4-2 in their series Lexus ATP Head2head. Alcaraz missed Madrid in a clay swing due to a right arm, but in Paris he looked more sharper.
Published:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
2 June 2025
