Tommy Paul pulled off a massive upset, ending the 14-match winning streak of Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz to reach the semifinals of the ongoing Canadian Open on Saturday.
He defeated Alcaraz 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to seal his spot in his maiden ATP Masters 1000 semifinal. The 26-year-old had beaten Alcaraz last year in Montreal. He displayed excellent all-court coverage against the world's number-one star.
"I played a really good match today. I really went after my shots," Paul said in his on-court interview as quoted by ATP.
"You cannot start any points on your heels against him or he will take advantage of that. So you really have to go after your shots early in the rally and I was feeling really good on the first-strike tennis. That was the difference today," he added.
The 12th seed secured 21 off 23 net points and had an aggressive return against Alcaraz in the two-hour, 20-minute battle. The Spaniard committed 17 unforced forehand errors.
The one-time tour level takes his head-to-head record against Alcaraz to 2-1, who now slips to a record of 49 wins and five losses this season.
"It helps knowing that you can beat your opponent. You never want to walk on the court and be like 'I don't know if I can beat this guy'. It's the attitude you have got to have no matter who you are playing. I would say it helped a little bit," he said.
Paul will next meet either seventh seed Jannik Sinner or France's Gael Monfils. The New Jersey star is at the career-high of number 12 in the ATP Rankings.
Alcaraz, suffered his first loss since French Open this year. He has a season-leading six tour-level titles this year. It was the first quarter-final loss of 10 appearances in the last eight this year. He could play Paul in Cincinnati Open, where they both are seeded to meet in round three.
A semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open, Paul will next meet seventh seed Jannik Sinner or Frenchman Gael Monfils. The New Jersey native is at a career-high No. 12 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.
Also, Alex de Minaur made a comeback to secure an upset win over world number three Daniil Medvedev to reach the semifinal of the tournament.
He beat Medvedev 7-6(7), 7-5 to secure his first-ever ATP Masters 1000 semifinal.
The Australian showed similar resilience against Medvedev as he had done in his last encounter against Taylor Fritz, where he came back from 1-5 in the first set. De Minaur, who was playing in his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal, came back to win the first set after saving three set points in the tie-break. He twice overcame break deficits in the second set to defeat Medvedev, who won the trophy in Toronto in 2021, for just the fourth time this season on a hard court.
"I had to play some of my best tennis today. It has been a great week for me so far. I played the right way today. I think having played him at the end of last year gave me the confidence that I had a chance. I just had to play the right way and I am extremely proud of the effort and to still be alive," said De Minaur.
"I know every time I play Daniil it will be a chess match. We are both very good at adapting and playing different styles and it brings the best out of me. I have to be aggressive and take the chances I get. I think this style of tennis is my best style of tennis," he added.
The 24-year-old, who had also beat Cameron Norrie earlier this week, now has four top-five wins. He will continue his pursuit for the eighth and the biggest tour-level title of his career against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Saturday.
In this season, De Minaur won the title in Acapulco and ended up runners-up at Los Cabos last week, losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas. He has now lifted himself to 11th in ATP Live Rankings and is 14th in ATP Rankings.
The Aussie also improved his head-to-head record against Medvedev to 2-4.
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