Carlos Alcaraz reached the round of 16 at the 2026 Australian Open without losing a single set.
The world No.1 – who finally wants to go beyond the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park and maybe lift the trophy – put in his best performance of the tournament so far by beating French ace Corentin Moutet in three sets, with a small distraction only in the middle of the second set.
The 22-year-old Spaniard proved to be in excellent shape and gave the fans plenty of spectacular shots, as well as being cynical to avoid wasting precious energy for the rest of the tournament.
The six-time Grand Slam champion has important ambitions at the AOs and intends to go far thanks to the support of his new team, which seems to give him the right guarantees at the moment.
Carlitos must be careful
Alcaraz will have to further raise his level against Tommy Paul in the next round. The American player represents a very dangerous opponent on this surface and has already defeated Carlos twice in the past, although the star from Murcia is ahead 5-2 in the h2h.
Their last clash was staged at Roland Garros last year, with the Spaniard putting in a performance bordering on perfection by demolishing his rival. Paul – for his part – was able to benefit from the retirement of Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the beginning of the third set and will be very rested.
In his press conference, Tommy confessed that he is looking forward to face Carlitos: “I mean, it’s always an interesting matchup. Always a great challenge playing Carlos. He can really do anything on the court. Lightning fast. I mean, he’s like the standard that everyone’s trying to catch up to right now.”
He also added: “But you got to go into that with excitement, be ready to face that, be ready to bring your best level, believe in yourself. So I’m more excited than anything about the matchup. Like I said, I’ve been playing great tennis so far this tournament. Hopefully we can keep going and get even better.”
