Spanish player Carlos Alcaraz's preparations to defend his title at the US Open suffered a setback after losing 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to American Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Open. For the third consecutive match, the world number one struggled with a slow start on the hard courts in Toronto, falling behind early and committing a double fault that handed Paul the first set.
Alcaraz raised his level in the second set, executing an impressive shot between his legs and behind him to tie the score at 3-3, breaking his opponent's serve in the next game without losing any points, taking a 4-3 lead on his way to clinching the second set. However, Paul dominated the deciding set, hitting a powerful backhand that caught Alcaraz off guard, who was unable to return it into the court, losing his serve before the American capitalized on a poorly executed drop shot during match point, eliminating the world number one from the tournament.
Paul, who is 26 years old, will move up to at least 12th in the ATP rankings that will be released on Monday, marking the highest point in his career, and will face Italian Jannik Sinner, who defeated Frenchman Gael Monfils in three sets.
Earlier, Australian Alex de Minaur secured a tough victory, 7-6, 7-5, ousting second-seed Russian Daniil Medvedev, and advancing to the semifinals of a Masters 1000 event for the first time, where he will face Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who overcame American Mackenzie McDonald. De Minaur was down 5-2 in the first set and faced three set points in the tiebreak before coming back to take the lead against Medvedev, who won the tournament in 2021.
