Alcaraz Powers Past Paul Into US Open Quarterfinals, Four Matches Into Injury Comeback

Carlos Alcaraz needed only two hours and 20 minutes on Sunday to remind the U.S. Open why it crowned him champion a year ago. The second-seeded Spaniard beat American Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the fourth round at Arthur Ashe Stadium, extending his winning streak at major tournaments to 18 matches and advancing to the quarterfinals in just his fourth event back from a right wrist injury that had sidelined him since April.

The result was never seriously in doubt after the opening set. Alcaraz, the defending champion, broke Paul's serve twice early in the second set and once more in the third, closing out the match with 33 winners to Paul's 18. It was the Spaniard's 14th consecutive set won against the 20th-seeded American, who has not taken a set off him since Wimbledon 2024.

The numbers behind the win

Alcaraz's victory pushed his head-to-head record against Paul to 7-2 and, more notably, made him just the 10th man in the Open era to defeat the same opponent at all four Grand Slam tournaments, according to ATP Tour statistics. The 18-match major winning streak, a career best for the 22-year-old, stretches back through his 2025 U.S. Open title and includes his run to the Australian Open championship in January.

The match unfolded with little early drama. Neither player earned a break point across the first nine games before Alcaraz broke to take the opening set. From there he did not relinquish control, using an aggressive return game to keep Paul from settling into the extended rallies that had carried him through four-set wins earlier in the tournament.

A comeback four months in the making

Sunday's match was only Alcaraz's fourth tournament since he beat Novak Djokovic in five sets to win the Australian Open in January, a title that made him the youngest man in the Open era to complete the career Grand Slam. A right wrist injury forced him off tour that spring, costing him the entire clay and grass-court seasons, including Roland Garros and Wimbledon, before he returned to competition in August.

The layoff has reshaped this year's U.S. Open field in more ways than one. World No. 1 Jannik Sinner withdrew from the tournament in August with a right knee injury of his own, leaving the men's draw considerably more open than it looked a year ago, when Alcaraz beat Sinner in the final in front of a crowd that included the sitting president. Speaking to the tournament's official site earlier in the week, Alcaraz described his return to Grand Slam tennis after months away as its own kind of test, distinct from simply being fit to play.

That test has so far gone smoothly. Alcaraz opened with a straight-sets win over Roman Safiullin, dropped a set to Jaime Faria in the second round before rallying to win in four, then dispatched Yibing Wu in straight sets in the third round. Each of those matches came with warnings from the Spaniard himself that his conditioning and rhythm were still catching up to his results, a caveat that has done little to slow his march through the draw.

What it means for Paul and the American men

For Tommy Paul, the loss ends a tournament in which he had already avenged a previous defeat earlier in the week and reached the second week for the third time in four years. The 29-year-old, seeded 20th and playing his way back up the rankings after injuries of his own earlier this season, has never advanced past the fourth round in New York. Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe remain alive elsewhere in the draw, keeping open the sport's longer-running storyline about which American man might end the country's Grand Slam singles drought on the men's side.

Alcaraz, for his part, was direct about his approach on court once the match got underway.

"I tried not to let him stay high up on the court, and I think I did pretty well to put so much pressure on return games, which for me helped a lot to play relaxed, to play calm and think clearly. I'm really happy with the performance today," Alcaraz said in his on-court interview.

He added that he had simply tried to play his own game against a dangerous ball-striker. "Tommy is such a talented player. His shots are pretty dangerous and sometimes it is really difficult to control the ball when it comes to you. I just tried to be ready for a battle and tried to be aggressive all the time," he said.

What happens next

Alcaraz will face the winner of Sunday night's fourth-round match between eighth-seeded Ben Shelton and Stefanos Tsitsipas, a contest scheduled to open the evening session at Arthur Ashe Stadium. A win in the quarterfinals would put him within two matches of a second consecutive U.S. Open title and an eighth career major, which would extend his lead over Sinner and every other active player age 25 or younger.

For now, the takeaway from Flushing Meadows is less about Alcaraz's ranking than his health. Four matches into his return from the wrist injury, he has dropped only one set in New York and has yet to show any physical hesitation in a draw that has already lost its top seed to injury. Tournament organizers and broadcasters have leaned into the storyline of his recovery all week, and Sunday's straight-sets win did nothing to complicate it. The remaining question, as the tournament enters its final stretch, is whether the layoff left any lasting mark at all — one that will only be answered against tougher competition than Paul provided on Sunday.