Carlos Alcaraz dropped only five games against America’s Tommy Paul in the Roland Garros quarterfinals at Court Philippe-Chatrier on Tuesday. The Spaniard bageled Paul in the opening set as he was spot on in his shot-making.

With this win, Alcaraz reached the semi-finals in Paris for the third consecutive year. Paul had troubled Alcaraz in the past but the latter faced no problems in the quarterfinals clash. The Spaniard was able to wrap up the game in one hour and 34 minutes.

“I could close my eyes and everything went in,” Alcaraz said. “My feeling today was unbelievable. I was trying to hit every shot at 100 per cent, not thinking about anything else, but just hitting. Today was one of those matches when everything just went in.”

The 22-year-old smashed 39 winners and committed 22 unforced errors to improve to 5-2 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series against Paul.

Alcaraz said he was focused on bringing his best against Paul as he knew this could be a tough match for him.

“We are in the quarter-finals at a Grand Slam at Roland Garros and this kind of match is never easy,” Alcaraz said. “I have played against Tommy many times and each match was very difficult. He beat me two times. That helped me at the start of the match to just focus on my tennis, trying not to go down or let him in the match. I tried to be focused the whole match.”

After qualifying for the semis, Alcaraz became the first defending champion to reach the semi-finals the following year since Rafael Nadal in 2021.

The four-time Slam champion will face Lorenzo Musetti in the semifinal on Friday.