Tommy Paul rallies, saving a match point to upset Carlos Alcaraz in Montreal

American Tommy Paul advanced to the last 16 of the Montreal Masters by defeating Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, the second seed, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (7), 6-3 at Stade IGA on Wednesday afternoon.

Paul, ranked No 34, will play the winner of the match between Croat Marin Čilić, the No 13 seed, and Russian Karen Khachanov next.

Paul rallied from 4-1 down in the second set, breaking for 3-4, then again to take a 5-4 lead. But Alcaraz battled back with a break of his own to force a second-set tiebreak.

Paul converted his second set point in the breaker, two points after saving a match point to level at 7-all.

The 25-year-old American had a 5-2 lead in the decider before Alcaraz showed his class, brilliantly saving four match points to hold for 3-5. Alcaraz had a break point in the final game as well, but the world No 34 was too strong at the finish.

“It’s nice to finish passing shots at the net,” Paul said after converting his fifth match point to lock up the victory in three hours and 20 minutes. “He hit a pretty nice passing shot there the last point. I covered the line well and volleyed it well. I think I did a lot of things well today, I played a good level of tennis, especially there in the third set.”

Paul improves to 3-2 against the top-10 in 2022; the American was 2-7 against the top-10 for his career heading into 2022.

“I just felt like I was in his service games,” Paul explained of his first career meeting with the 19-year-old Spaniard. “In the second set I felt like I could break. So I knew that if I just got one break back; I didn’t expect to get two breaks back and serve for the second and then get broken – it never goes how you think it’s going to go but I felt like I was playing comfortable tennis overall, I stuck to the game plan and played well.”

Alcaraz drops to 42-8 on the season, losing his first match in North America this summer, after playing back to back events in Hamburg and Umag in July, where he lost in the finals of both.

The Spaniard drops to 12-3 on the hard courts in 2022.

“I think I got him, his first match on the hard court series,” admitted Paul, referring to the fact that Alcaraz had not played on the surface since winning the Miami title in early April.

Montreal Masters 1000, other second-round results (Stade IGA, hard, USD 6.573.785, most recent results first):

• Jack Draper vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Andrey Rublev vs. Daniel Evans
• Yoshihito Nishioka vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Diego Schwartzman vs. Albert Ramos-Vinolas
• Frances Tiafoe vs. Taylor Fritz
• Cameron Norrie vs. Botic van de Zandschulp
• Marin Čilić vs. Karen Khachanov
• Gael Monfils vs. Maxime Cressy
• Alex De Minaur vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Nick Kyrgios
• Jannik Sinner vs. Adrian Mannarino: wednesday
• Pablo Carreno Busta beat Holger Rune: 6-0, 6-3
• Roberto Bautista Agut (14) beat Jenson Brooksby: 7-5, 6-1
• Casper Ruud (4) beat Alex Molcan: 7-6 (3), 6-3
• Hubert Hurkacz (8) beat Emil Ruusuvuori: 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2

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