After beating Carlos Alcaraz in the Rogers Cup, Tommy Paul said that the quality of the match between the pair in the same tournament last year was better compared to this year. Paul won both the matches in three sets and leads Alcaraz 2-1 in head-to-heads now with his latest victory.
The American is having the best year of his professional career. After reaching the Australian Open semi-final in January, it could be said that he has been one of the best players on tour in 2023. Certainly one of the very few who have beaten the Wimbledon champion.
Tommy Paul v Carlos Alcaraz was better last year?
Tommy Paul beat Carlos Alcaraz in three sets to secure a place in the final of the Rogers Cup 2023. This was the Americans 2nd win over Alcaraz, the first one was exactly an year ago in the same tournament. However, Paul felt that the overall level of tennis was better last year, even though Alcaraz is the top ranked player in the world right now.
” In my opinion, last year’s match, the level overall was better. Even though, you know, he’s the best player in the world right now, he’s No. 1 in the world, I think the level overall was better last year. After that match last year, he was saying that he was dealing with pressure of being at the top of the game. And, I mean, he’s changed a lot. He’s grown a lot, and he’s definitely handling that pressure pretty well, you know, going into Wimbledon and tearing it up there.”
Tommy Paul might have beaten the best player in the world but he is not flying off the handle and just concentrating on the next game.
“I’m kind of a day-by-day kind of guy, so I’m looking towards the next match. I don’t know what the score is there or who I’m going to play.”
Jannik Sinner beat Geal Monfils in the other semi final and will face Tommy Paul for the trophy. Paul will be full of confidence going into the game having just beaten the best player in the world.
How Paul beat Alcaraz
Tommy is one of the few people who can boast a better head-to-head record against Carlos as this win in the Rogers Cup made it 2-1. The American defeated the world number 1 in the Canada Open last year as well in three sets and he has now admitted that he went into the match last year without knowing what to expect and said he was just trying to get to know Alcaraz’s game.
Paul won 21 out of 23 net points in the match and he was himself surprised by such a stat but he admitted that his main goal was to improve his serve percentage going into the third set.
“It’s a pretty good stat. Did not know that. And one of those points was his tweener winner, so… I wasn’t really thinking about coming in too much. I mean, I’m always trying to come into the net, trying to get up there, play aggressive tennis, but kind of just letting it happen. After the second, I saw my first serve percentage was super low in the second set. So that was my main goal going into the third and — I don’t know. Making more returns, making him earn his service game is always — no matter who you’re playing, you want your opponents to earn their service games. So that’s kind of what I was going for.”
With a big victory against Carlos Alcaraz and another final to look forward to, Tommy Paul will be fancying his chances of silverware in coming weeks. While his immediate attention will be on Jannik Sinner, his long term goal will be success at the upcoming US Open.
