Carlos Alcaraz has reached his third successive Australian Open quarterfinal after his victory over Tommy Paul.
Alcaraz is delighted to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals, which he has done without dropping a set in Melbourne.
Jim Courier thinks Alcaraz will win the Australian Open, which would represent the career Grand Slam for the Spaniard.
Alcaraz is a six-time Grand Slam champion, but has failed to make it beyond the quarterfinal stage of the Australian Open.
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Carlos Alcaraz overtakes Rafael Nadal’s record at the Australian Open
Alcaraz’s latest win is of huge significance, with the Spanish star having just surpassed his compatriot Rafael Nadal for the best win rate of any player against seeded opponents at Grand Slam matches.
That is according to OptaAce for players with a minimum of 10 matches in the Open Era, with Alcaraz’s 80.4% now above Nadal’s 80.1%.
The former will have already been eyeing a key record of the latter in Melbourne, with Nadal currently the youngest career Grand Slam winner at 24.
Carlos Alcaraz ‘surprising’ himself with his serve at the Australian Open
Alcaraz has been flying high at the Australian Open so far, knocking out Adam Walton, Yannick Hanfmann, Corentin Moutet and now Paul.
Given his dominance on the ATP Tour in recent times, it has come as little surprise to many, although the world number one has been surprising himself.
Discussing his first serve success, he said on-court after beating Paul: “Yeah, I’m surprising myself to be honest. The serve is something that I’ve been working on a long time ago.
“So for me, I’m just really happy to see the improvement of the serve, to have a high percentage of the serve. After every set, just trying to take it up, my percentage serve.
“Yeah I’m looking on the screens after every set. To see, okay, these sets I didn’t do well, so I try to be a bit better.
“But in general, I think that the four matches that I’ve played, the serve has been a really important weapon for me.”
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It’s a weapon that he will hope to continue to exploit as the tournament progresses, where his level of opponent should also rise.
The top seed could face Alexander Zverev in the semifinals, and potentially either Novak Djokovic or Jannik Sinner in the final.
He will, however, gain a huge confidence boost from surpassing tennis legend Nadal, who won two Australian Open titles and 20 Grand Slam titles overall.
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