Carlos Alcaraz was not in the mood to negotiate. The defending champion of the French Open champion issued a ruthless performance under Philippe-Chamrier’s courts on Tuesday and dismantled the American Tommy Paul 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 to book his place in the semifinals of Roland Garros.
The reigning Master Roland-Garros lived up to his favorite and has so far gave his most complete display of the tournament. From the beginning, the Spaniard has prepared a blistering pace, stunning Paul with a combination of strength, accuracy and taste that left the American winding.
Alcaraz took place with the opening set in just 25 minutes, sealed it 6-0 and set the tone for a one-sided competition. Paul managed to keep it to open the second set, but that was the extent of its resistance. Alcaraz replied by winning six direct games and the second set 6-1 with ease.
The third set saw Paul offers some resistance, trim 2-1 and later at the level of drawing at 4-4, but the Spaniard remained folded. With the tireless intensity and the flawless version of Alcaraz, he closed the match 6-4 and sealed the victory of direct sets in less than two hours.
This season, the victory extended Alcaraz’s undefeated run on the clay to 11 matches, which improved its overall record on the surface of 20-1. Now the ATP tour with 35 victories and three titles in 2025 and underlines its dominance during the clay swing.
With this victory, Alcaraz also became the first defending male champion in Roland-Garros to return to the semifinals from Rafael Nadal in 2021.
Paul, a semifinalist at the Australian Open 2023, enjoyed an impressive run in Paris and became the first American to get into the quarterfinals in two decades. Together with Tiafoe he also helped end 29 years of waiting for two American men to appear in Roland-Garros in the same year in the last eight.
But there was little against Alcaraz that it could do it. With his mixture of raw talents, court intelligence and competing fire, the Spaniard has been strongly preserved to maintain his crown in Paris – and may have announced in the new era of dominance on red clay.
Published:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
June 4, 2025
