Tennis-Merciless Alcaraz flattens Paul at French Open to reach semis

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By Shrivathsa Sridhar

PARIS (Reuters) -Carlos Alcaraz continued his French Open title defence with a display of breathtaking brutality for a 6-0 6-1 6-4 victory over American 12th seed Tommy Paul and a spot in the Roland Garros semi-finals on Tuesday.

The second seed has searched in vain for his usual sublime form on Parisian clay this year, needing four sets in his last three matches to dismiss determined opponents, but he had no trouble on a balmy evening on Court Philippe Chatrier.

“It was like I could close my eyes and everything went in,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview.

“My feeling was unbelievable, I tried to hit my shots at 100% … today was just one of those matches where everything went in.

“We were in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros and these matches aren’t easy. I’ve lost to him twice and against Tommy, matches are very difficult. That helped me focus on my tennis and try not to go down or let him get into the match.”

Alcaraz motored through the opening set without dropping a game and grabbed his fourth break early in the second set after sparing Paul the ignominy of another bagel and the 22-year-old pulled further away to double his lead in only 53 minutes.

He glided across the red clay while delivering punishing shots, knocking the racket out of Paul’s hands at one point with a thunderous effort, before finally facing some resistance in the third set.

Former junior French Open champion Paul stayed level with Alcaraz until 4-4 but soon faded away and the holder closed out the victory to book a clash with Italian eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti in the semi-finals.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Paris)