Carlos Alcaraz asked to break the rules at the French Open and gave points to Ben Shelton on Sunday in a 7-6 (8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory in the fourth round.
Also on Sunday, No. 12 Tommy Paul became the first American man in the Roland Garos quarterfinals since Andre Agassi in 2003, when 28-year-old Paul (28) was caught in this victory to set a matchup against Alcaraz.
Early in the second set, Shelton whipped enough passing shots from Alcaraz’s reach up in the net. So Alkaraz threw his racket at him and when his equipment turned over the air, the strings somehow came into contact with the ball, as well as sent back to the other side of the court on the net.
Initially, second seed Alkaraz was awarded points. However, he immediately went to the umpire of the chair and admitted that he had no rackets when he touched the ball. It was not allowed so the point went to Shade Shelton 13th.
Alcaraz was applauded when officials informed the court of what had happened to the Philip Chatelier crowd.
This could have been a key moment as Alcaraz reduced to 30-40, giving Shelton the first breakpoint of the match instead of leading 40-30 on his serve. However, Alcaraz saved that one and the other five in that 20-point game to get a two-set lead in an interesting matchup between the 22-year-old pair who hit the ball hard.
“Today I fought myself,” Alkaraz said. “I was angry, angry and I was trying to calm myself down because it wasn’t really good. I’m so happy that those thoughts made me do what I’d be against. I tried to calm myself down and keep on going.”
Major semi-finalist Shelton was offered forehand at up to 143 mph and up to 116 mph. Already a four-time Grand Slam champion, Alkaraz has shown out different parts of his repertoire.
The score was tighter than it showed. Shelton held three opportunities to own the opening set, leading the tiebreaker at 6-4, 6-5 and 7-6. However, Alcaraz saved the first with the winner of the service. Shelton netted his next backhand. And finally, Shelton finished off with Alcaraz’s body hitting the backhand.
Alcaraz then converted his second set point and closed the 15-stroke exchange with the downline forehand that caused a mistake from Shelton.
The third set goes to Shelton as Alcaraz puts a forehand into the net, with a bunch of Americans punching the air, then punching his chest and saying, “Let’s go, baby! Come on!”
The fourth set a breakpoint that claimed a 2-1 edge using the drop shot winner, and managed to win 11 times in a row at Roland Garros three hours later, 19 minutes later.
“We have great respect for each other,” Alkaraz said. “Every time we face each other, we have a high level and play good tennis. He’s a really strong player and can do any shot. … He’s an incredible player.”
In addition to his unusual French open run for the Americans, Paul became the only active US player to reach the final eight on all three surfaces after the Australian Open Semi-finals in 2023 and the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2024.
“I’m so happy to have a straight set win. It felt really good because we’ve had such a long game,” Paul, who spent almost 11 hours on the court in the previous three rounds, said in a post-match interview. “A short match like this can go a long way.”
Paul finds himself broken down after the first match.
Popilin, a former Parisian junior champion like Paul, hadn’t lost the set in his run to the fourth round, but found the set when he broke again.
The Australian was constantly turning his box to express his frustration, but Paul attacked every opportunity, and Popilin’s second serve proved his weakness, clearly rattling.
He broke again at the start of the second set. Paul added another break to land the set and spent two hours at 3-0, 3-0, finishing his 25-seeded opponent within two hours.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.
