Tommy Paul pulls off massive upset of Carlos Alcaraz to clinch first Masters semi-final

Tommy Paul recorded his first win over a reigning world No 1 to set up his first ever ATP Masters semi-final in Toronto.
Paul snapped Carlos Alcaraz’s 14-match winning streak and recorded a second win over the Spaniard in Canada.
The American came out swinging and earned a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 over the top seed.
Paul seemed to have Alcaraz well-scouted which is the challenge the world No 1 now faces.
After the match Paul admitted that he felt the pressure to get ahead of the game knowing that he couldn’t afford to surrender the impetus to Alcaraz, especially early on.
“I played a really good match today. I really went after my shots,” Paul said in his on-court interview. “You can’t start any points on your heels against him or he’ll take advantage of that. So you really have to go after your shots early in the rally and I was feeling really good on the first-strike tennis. That was the difference today.”
Paul won the race to the net but it wouldn’t have helped him if he wasn’t able to excute as well as he did. He won 21 of 23 net points and had Alcaraz on the back foot.
The Spaniard wasn’t helped by the malfunction of his forehand from the baseline as he committed 17 unforced errors on that side.
Paul said that his previous win over Alcaraz gave him the belief that he could beat the man who, since their last meeting, has won two Grand Slams.
“It helps knowing that you can beat your opponent,” Paul said. “You never want to walk on the court and be like ‘I don’t know if I can beat this guy’. It’s the attitude you’ve got to have no matter who you are playing. I would say it helped a little bit.”
Paul will face Jannik Sinner in the last four after the Italian doused a red-hot Gael Monfils in a thrilling last eight match.
Sinner bested Monfils 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to books his fifth ATP Masters semi-final.
Monfils blasted 19 aces past the Italian but Sinner rallied despite letting slip an early break in the second set.
“It was very tough,” Sinner said in his on-court interview. “In the second set, I made a couple unforced errors but he raised his level. In the third set, I just tried to stick to my game plan, trying to play a little more free, which I’ve done so I’m very happy about the performance.”
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