Carlos Alcaraz, Tommy Paul through to Australian Open quarters

MELBOURNE, Australia – Carlos Alcaraz reached his 10th career Grand Slam quarter-final, the most by a male player before his 22nd birthday, by advancing to the Australian Open as 15th-seeded Jack Draper stopped play due to injury after dropping the first two. sets Sunday.

The no. 3-seeded Alcaraz was leading 7-5, 6-1 when Draper decided he could not continue. He had been dealing with physical problems after winning each of his first three matches at Melbourne Park in five sets.

“It’s not the way I want to win a fight, to advance to the next round,” Alcaraz said. “Delighted to play another quarter-final here in Australia, but a little bit sad for Jack.”

The two were supposed to spend a week training together in the offseason, but Draper had to turn down that chance due to injury.

Alcaraz will next face either 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic or No. 24 Jiri Lehecka. They were scheduled to meet in the fourth round on Sunday night.

“I definitely want to see it. Where? I don’t know. I have to recover now. My mind is (on) recovering as well as I can with my team,” said Alcaraz, who planned to keep tabs on possible tactical choices for his quarter-final.

Sunday’s match goes down in the books as a win for Alcaraz, his first against a top-20 opponent at the Australian Open, which he is trying to win for the first time to complete a career Grand Slam. He already has two titles from Wimbledon – defeating Djokovic in the finals in 2023 and 2024 – plus one each from the US Open and French Open.

The 21-year-old Alcaraz tied with Bjørn Borg, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander for the highest number of major quarter-finals at that age.

Alcaraz’s best run at Melbourne Park was reaching the quarter-finals last year before losing to Alexander Zverev at that time.

“I’m just happy with the level I’m playing,” Alcaraz said. “On the pitch, off the pitch, I feel really comfortable here in Australia.”

Also on Sunday, Tommy Paul ended Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s run of comebacks at the Australian Open, reaching his third Grand Slam quarter-final with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory.

Paul, an American seeded 12th at Melbourne Park, needed less than 1½ hours to finish off a physically diminished opponent who sought the help of a trainer. There was no turnaround this time for 66th-ranked Davidovich Fokina, who had won each of his last two matches despite dropping the first two sets in both.

“What he’s done is unreal the last couple of games… To do it twice in a row is amazing,” Paul said.

But Paul won almost twice as many points (85-43) as his Spanish rival.

Paul’s best performance at any Grand Slam tournament was reaching the semi-finals at the 2023 Australian Open. He will look to repeat that by getting past the no. 2 Alexander Zverev, a two-time runner-up at majors who beat no. 14 Ugo Humbert 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.