No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz continues strong U.S. Open return with 3rd-round sweep

Second-seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz continued to show little rust from his four-month layoff due to a wrist injury, sweeping China's Wu Yibing 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the Round of 16 at the U.S. Open on Friday in New York.

This victory extended Alcaraz's Grand Slam winning streak to 17 matches as he continues his pursuit of becoming the first man to win back-to-back U.S. Opens since Roger Federer won five straight from 2004-08.

Although he hadn't played a singles match since April, he's dropped just one set through three matches in his return to action.

The scoreline of the match wasn't quite indicative of how competitive it was. Each of the first two sets was tied at 3 before Alcaraz pulled away late. The third set was less competitive, with Alcaraz winning the final five games to close out the match in 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Wu, who matched his deepest run at a Slam with a third-round appearance in the 2022 U.S. Open, saved 8 of 15 break-point chances on his serve to hang around in the match despite finishing with 12 winners and 39 unforced errors.

"I think today there was a really high rhythm," Alcaraz said after the win. "The way (Yibing) plays is unbelievable, the rhythm he has on every shot: forehand, backhand. His balls skid a lot on the court and, for me, it's really difficult to control sometimes. But I think I stayed there. I played aggressive; I played smart in the toughest moments."

Alcaraz will face his first seeded opponent since his return, No. 20 Tommy Paul, in the fourth round. Paul rose to the occasion late to knock off No. 15 Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-3 Friday afternoon, reaching the fourth round of his home country Slam for the third time in his career.

After dropping the final three points of the third-set tiebreaker to fall into a 2-1 hole in sets, Paul broke his opponent in his first return game of each of the final two sets, opening a 5-1 lead in the fourth set and a 5-0 lead in the fifth, facing just one break point over the final two sets.

Alcaraz has a 6-2 lead in the head-to-head series against Paul and has won the last five matchups, the last four of which came at Grand Slam tournaments or the Olympics. If Paul can beat Alcaraz for the first time since 2023, he would become the only active American who has reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia continued his strong start to the event with his third straight-sets victory, this time a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 triumph over No. 26 Arthur Rinderknech of France.

The 2021 U.S. Open champion overcame six double faults by winning 85% of his first-serve points and facing just two break points, saving one of them.

He'll next face the winner of Friday night's matchup between No. 11 Frances Tiafoe and No. 22 Valentin Vacherot of Monaco for a quarterfinal spot.

--Field Level Media