American Tommy Paul on Friday ended top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz’s winning streak at 14 matches, beating the 20-year-old Spanish star 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the Canadian Open semi-finals.
Alcaraz had the shot of the match with a between-the-legs winner in the second set, but could not keep up with Paul in the third.
“I played a really good match. I really went after my shots,” Paul said. “You can’t start any points on your heels against him or he’ll 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.”
Photo: AP
Alcaraz leads the tour with six tournament wins and 49 match victories against only five losses.
“He’s really tough on every surface,” Alcaraz said. “I mean he’s a mix of everything. It makes him really, really tough.”
The 26-year-old Paul won in Stockholm in 2021 for his lone tour title. He also beat Alcaraz last year in Montreal in the tournament.
“It helps knowing that you can beat your opponent,” Paul said. “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’ve got to have no matter who you are playing.”
Paul faces seventh seed Jannik Sinner of Italy, who won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 over Gael Monfils of France.
In the afternoon, second seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia dropped out with a 7-6 (9/7), 7-5 loss to Australia’s Alex de Minaur.
De Minaur faces Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the semi-finals.
Davidovich Fokina beat American Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-2 in the opening quarter-final.
In the women’s singles, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan outlasted Daria Kasatkina of Russia 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (10/8) in a match that ended at 2:54am yesterday.
“I’ve played three sets, tough battles, but like this, honestly, physically it’s really tough,” Rybakina said on court after the match. “It’s so late. I’ve never played this late. Thank you so much. Hopefully, somehow I can recover for tomorrow.”
Rybakina faces Liudmila Samsonova of Russia in the semi-finals. Samsonova beat Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4.
Poland’s Iga Swiatek faces Jessica Pegula of the US in the other semi after Pegula defeated compatriot Coco Gauff 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 and Swiatek eliminated Danielle Collins of the US 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and partner Yang Zhaoxuan of China reached the semi-finals with a 2-6, 6-3, 10-4 win over the US’ Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez of Australia.
They are to play Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara today after the Japanese duo had a walkover win in the quarters.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
Taiwanese “boxing queen” Chen Nien-chin today won the women’s 65kg division final at the Asian Boxing Elite Championships in Ulaanbaatar, securing Taiwan’s first gold medal in that weight class at the tournament. Chen defeated North Korea’s Hwang Hyo Sun 4-1, after the two were tied through the first two rounds. Chen won bronze in the 66kg division at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
RSS