TORONTO — American Tommy Paul ended top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz‘s winning streak at 14 matches, beating the 20-year-old Spanish star 6-3 4-6 6-3 on Friday night to reach the National Bank Open semifinals.
Alcaraz had the shot of the match with a between-the-leg winner in the second set, but couldn’t keep up with Paul in the third.
Alcaraz, the Wimbledon champion preparing for his U.S. Open title defense, leads the tour with six victories and 49 match victories against only five losses.
Paul will face the winner of the late match between seventh-seeded Jannik Sinner of Italy and Gael Monfils of France.
In the afternoon, second-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia dropped out with a 7-6 (7), 7-5 loss to Australia’s Alex de Minaur.
“I had to play some of my best tennis today,” de Minaur said. “It has been a great week for me so far. I played the right way today. I think having played him at the end of last year gave me the confidence that I had a chance. I just had to play the right way and I am extremely proud of the effort and to still be alive.”
Medvedev, the 2021 champion in Toronto, had seven double-faults — the last on match point on a warm, sunny afternoon at Sobeys Stadium.
De Minaur will face Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in a battle of unseeded players in their first career Masters 1000 semifinal. In March, de Minaur won in Acapulco for his seventh career title.
Davidovich Fokina beat American Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-2 in the opening quarterfinal.