Alcaraz reaches Roland-Garros quarter-finals with clinical win over Auger-Aliassime

Carlos Alcaraz, the No 3 seed, moved into the last eight of Roland-Garros by beating Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 21 seed, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

A competitive first set saw an exchange of early breaks before Alcaraz broke again in the eighth game to take the opener.

A medical timeout for Auger-Aliassime seemed to hamper the Canadian’s rhythm as Alcaraz struck again to take the second by the same score line.

From there, it was too far back for Auger-Aliassime, who ran out of steam in the decider as the young Spaniard sprinted to the finish line with a 6-1 victory in that final set.

Auger-Aliassime can look back at this tournament with great pride, having returned to the second week of a Grand Slam after 18 months of real struggles with form and fitness.

He looks back to near his formidable old form, and this run sets him up well for the rest of the season.

But today was a step too far for him, as Alcaraz was simply too strong in all departments and he moves into his third straight quarter-final appearance in Paris.

Alcaraz, ranked No 3, will play Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 9 seed, next.

Ahead of his victory, the 21-year-old Spaniard beat American lucky loser J.J. Wolf (6-1, 6-2, 6-1), Dutch qualifier Jesper De Jong (6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2) and American Sebastian Korda, the No 27 seed (6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3).

Auger-Aliassime, ranked No 21, won against Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka (6-2, 6-4, 6-4), German qualifier Henri Squire (6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2) and American Ben Shelton, the No 15 seed (6-4, 6-2, 6-1) in the previous rounds of the Roland-Garros 2024.

Paris (Grand Slam), other last-16 results (Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 53.478.000, most recent results first):

• Alexander Zverev vs. Holger Rune
• Taylor Fritz vs. Casper Ruud
• Novak Djokovic vs. Francisco Cerundolo
• Alex De Minaur vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Corentin Moutet vs. Jannik Sinner
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Matteo Arnaldi: 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-2