Tommy Paul reaches first Roland Garros QF with win over Popyrin

Paris, June 1 (IANS) Tommy Paul broke new ground on Sunday at Roland Garros, where he reached the quarter-finals at the clay-court major for the first time.

The American earned battling five-set wins against Marton Fucsovics and Karen Khachanov earlier this week but found the going easier against Alexei Popyrin, dispatching the Australian 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 52 minutes as per ATP.

Paul has now reached the last eight at three of the four majors, advancing to the semi-finals at the Australian Open in 2023 and the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2024. The 28-year-old is just the ninth American man in the Open Era and only active American to advance to Grand Slam quarter-finals on all three surfaces. He joins Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Vitas Gerulaitis, Brian Gottfried, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras.

Aiming to reach the last four in Paris, the 12th seed will next face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or countryman Ben Shelton. Paul trails Alcaraz 2-4 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series and is tied at 2-2 with Shelton.

Paul saved 90 per cent (9/10) of the break points he faced against Popyrin, stuck 27 winners to the Australian's 18 and committed 15 fewer unforced errors (22-37) than the World No. 25, according to Infosys Stats.

Paul is now 12-3 on clay this season, having reached the semi-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome last month. The four-time tour-level titlist is currently No. 8 in the ATP Live Rankings.

Popyrin had not dropped a set en route to reaching the fourth round in the French capital for the first time. The 25-year-old is up four spots to No. 21 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.

--IANS

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