Alcaraz is already a candidate for everything at Roland Garros

Now that the rain has stopped in Paris and the roof of the Phillippe Chatrier has opened, Carlos Alcaraz’s tennis has reached its peak in the French capital. His overwhelming victory against Felix Auger-Aliassime (6-3, 6-3 and 6-1) confirms his candidacy for the title, which is three games away, yes, the most complicated of these two weeks, because in the Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jannik Sinner and who knows if Novak Djokovic loom on the horizon.

While the Serbian advances in fits and starts, with the latest match in the history of Roland Garros to get into the round of 16, Alcaraz has already added two rounds in a row without losing a set and demonstrating a number one authority in a tournament like this. The lack of pressure caused by the inconsistent clay tour before Paris has led to him being analyzed match by match and in each of them new improvements are seen with respect to the previous one.

Auger-Aliassime, one of the few men who has won two sets against Rafael Nadal on this court – he did it in 2022, but lost the match -, tried to continue with the tactic that Jesper de Jong tested in the second round and harass with leftovers to Spanish. The Canadian finished with more shots of this style than Alcaraz, but he lacked precision with the rest of the shots to even be able to enjoy a set.

For a player as explosive as Auger-Aliassime, it was exasperating to know that most short points were going his way and that his aggressiveness was being completely eaten up by Alcaraz. While the Murcian won 82 points between one and eight strokes, the Canadian player stayed at 54. The shorter the point lasted, the better for Alcaraz, who only suffered with the break balls, the big drawback of the match. He won 6 of 16, but made up for this lack of aim with his solidity to face the important points with his own serve. Auger-Aliassime was able to break him five times and only managed to do so once, in the first game of the match. From there, he held his serve on twelve consecutive occasions, his best record of the tournament.

Auger-Aliassime, formerly a pupil of Toni Nadal, also had to battle leg problems that hampered his movement in the first half of the second set. He had to go to the locker room to be treated by the doctor and the game was stopped for about ten minutes. It was a small mistake for Alcaraz, who saved, with 6-3 and 3-2, the only 0-40 he faced in the match, but it did not affect the overall result and it did not knock down Auger-Aliassime, who was able to continue without problems and finish the match, ending the image of the Canadian as a black beast. Because Alcaraz had a negative ‘head-to-head’ with him and tied it at 3-3 after this match.

His next match will be on Tuesday, against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who defeated Matteo Arnaldi (3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 and 6-2) in a match in which the Italian had two points to get 2-0 up in sets. Alcaraz has won the previous five matches he has played with Tsitsipas.