The Paris tournament continues today (Friday) with the four quarter-final games. In the early meeting, Felix Oja Aliasim defeated the American Fernandes Tiafou and then world number 1 Carlos Alcaraz fell behind against Holger Rona, and in the middle of a tiebreaker in the second set announced his retirement due to injury.
Next up was Novak Djokovic of Serbia who is ranked sixth and he easily beat the Italian Lorenzo Mozetti. The last eight stage will be closed by Stephanos Tsitsipas and Tommy Paul who will compete for a place in the semi-finals against Djokovic.
Carlos Alcaraz (1, Spain) – Holger Rona (18, Denmark) 6:3, 6:6
The number 1 ranked player in the world will remain at the top of the world rankings even though this is another tournament in which he will not win. The Spaniard surrendered 6:3 in the first set, but was in pain and at the start of the tiebreaker in the second set he sought medical treatment. Trailing 3:1 in the tiebreaker, he decided to retire due to the injury to his abdominal muscles, ended his path in the competition and the 19-year-old Rona qualified for the semi-finals, who will now face Felix Ojah Eliasim – it should be noted that he only beat Alcraz in the semi-finals of the Basel tournament last week. Whoever wins the semi-final between them will also guarantee their first participation in the Masters tournament next week, which Alkaras will of course hope to be qualified by the time it starts.
Felix Oja Eliasim (8, Canada) – Fernandes Tiafou (21, United States) 1:6, 4:6
The Canadian’s wonderful momentum continued with an easy victory in one hour and 34 minutes. The 22-year-old tennis player from Montreal recorded a 16th victory in a row and after winning tournaments in Florence, Antwerp and Basel in the last month, a meeting against Rona separates him from another final. Aliasim also increased his record to 0:3 against Tiafou.
Novak Djokovic (6, Serbia) – Lorenzo Mozetti (23, Italy) 0:6, 3:6
An hour after Alcaras retired, the Serbian defeated his Italian opponent and qualified for the semi-finals. The first set ended in 25 minutes, because “Nola” kept all of his serves, broke all of the other’s serves and won a crushing 0:6. The second set was already closer and it was the Italian who broke first, but Djokovic immediately broke back, leveling at 2:2 and in the sixth game he already broke once more on the way to the lead which he maintained until the end.