Carlos Alcaraz Dominates Tommy Paul at US Open

Carlos Alcaraz does not so much edge opponents out of Arthur Ashe Stadium as evict them.

Tommy Paul arrived with the tools to trouble him. He left with numbers that told a very different story.

Alcaraz finished with 33 winners to Paul’s 18, both men spilling 32 unforced errors, yet the gap between them felt far wider than the three tight-looking sets on the scoreboard. The Spaniard came forward 29 times, won 23 of those points, landed 67% of first serves, and dropped serve just once in 15 service games. He carved out 14 break points and converted four. Paul saved 10 of them, which kept the score respectable and nothing more.

Across three sets, Alcaraz won 99 of 173 points. The margin was clear. The scoreline flattered.

One wobble, no collapse

The only real tremor came right at the end.

Serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, Alcaraz slipped to 15-40. Two of the four break points he faced all night arrived in that game. For a moment, Ashe held its breath. Paul finally had a look at the finish line.

Alcaraz slammed it shut.

He erased both break points, then swept through the next two. A crosscourt forehand winner brought up match point, a service winner sealed it at the first attempt. No drama, no second invitation. The kind of cold, efficient close that marks out serial champions.

He has not lost at Flushing Meadows since 2024. The win stretched his run at the US Open to 11 matches and his streak at hard-court majors to 18, a line that runs through last year’s title in New York and this season’s Australian Open. This one delivered him to a 15th Grand Slam quarterfinal and within three more wins of becoming the first man since Roger Federer, who reeled off five straight from 2004 to 2008, to defend the US Open crown.

It also nudged him into rare statistical air. His win rate at hard-court majors now stands at 86.79%, third in the Open era. Only Novak Djokovic and Federer sit above him, and Federer’s 86.82% is barely out of reach. Pete Sampras is now behind.

Squeezing Paul out of the court

Paul knew what he was up against and spoke about it openly beforehand. He has the résumé of a man comfortable on the biggest stages: quarterfinals at the Australian Open, Roland-Garros and Wimbledon. New York, though, keeps its distance. Four times he has chased a US Open quarterfinal. Four times he has fallen short, this the second straight year he exits in the fourth round.

He has now lost seven of nine against Alcaraz. That head-to-head is starting to look less like a rivalry and more like a pattern.

Alcaraz’s own explanation for the night was simple and ruthless: do not let Paul breathe. He talked about denying the American any rhythm, about being ready to run, about staying aggressive and refusing to let Paul “stay on the court” in comfort. The numbers backed him up. Paul’s best passages came on defense, scrambling to save break points, not dictating.

The calm, Alcaraz insisted, came from what he did on return. He piled pressure on Paul’s service games, which allowed him to play his own with clarity and freedom. When asked if he felt fully back after four and a half months away, he pointed to his record in New York: “Except one year, since 2021 I make almost quarterfinal here.” The message was obvious. This place suits him. This surface, this noise, this stage – they all seem to sharpen his game.

The road ahead

The draw now tilts into focus. Alcaraz will face the winner of the fourth-round clash between American No. 8 seed Ben Shelton and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Lurking deeper in the same half are No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev, a former champion here, and American No. 11 seed Frances Tiafoe. On the far side of the draw waits top seed Alexander Zverev, the Roland-Garros champion.

The field is stacked, the routes varied, the hazards obvious. Yet as Alcaraz walks off Ashe again, unbeaten here since 2024, the questions around him feel less about his wrist and more about history.

Three more nights like this, and the conversation in New York will no longer be about whether he is back to his best. It will be about who, if anyone, can stop him.