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ATP Australian Open Grand Slam

Alcaraz overwhelms Paul in straight sets to reach Australian Open quarterfinals

Alcaraz beat Paul 7-6(6), 6-4, 7-5 to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals in straight sets. 2026

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World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz beat Tommy Paul 7-6 (6), 6-4, 7-5 to advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals. Paul broke in the opening game, but the top-seeded Spaniard steadily tightened his control and left the in-form American on the defensive.

“I have to accept the tough moments that is gonna be in the match,” he said on Friday . “You know, from that, just move on, and I’m trying to feel comfortable, you know, in those rallies, in those tough moments.” Alcaraz combined that mindset with efficient point construction, denying Paul time to impose his own patterns.

“He makes you feel like you have no time,” the No. 19 seed explained. “He rushes you.

“I hit my forehand terribly today, and he saw that early. He was trying to get in that forehand-to-forehand rally, and he did it much better than I did. That’s what it felt like. It felt like he got all the patterns he wanted, and I was having a tough time getting into the patterns that I wanted.”

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Paul, who beat Alcaraz in 2022 and 2023, has kept their matches close, but the world No. 1 has now won the last five meetings between them. “You know you’re going to have fun, at least,” sighed Paul, who shut down his season after the US Open last summer. “When we have points like that and the crowd loves it, we love it. You know that you’re going to have fun points. You know that you’re going to, like, have points you both play great tennis.

“I wish we had more of them today, honestly. Obviously for me that means that I’m coming up with shots and being a shot-maker. Obviously we’ve all seen that he does that. I wish there were more. That is the fun part about playing Carlos, though.”

The first-set tiebreak was the match’s closest moment, and play was halted for nearly 15 minutes to assist a sick fan leaving the arena. Paul grabbed a late mini-break in the Sudden Death but could not hold it, and Alcaraz closed out the set before taking the next two.

“Something that I was working on is to maintain the focus in the whole match, which I did it today, playing such great tennis since the beginning until the end of the match,” smiled Alcaraz in a truly absurd outfit—a zebra printed shirt and matching cape. “So, for me, it was really, really important more than saving energy, because I just have plenty of!”

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“I’m overall leaving Australia pretty happy with where my body is at and where my game is at, for not playing for a while,” said Paul, who aims to get back into the Top 10. “I feel like I jumped right back into it pretty quick. So overall leaving happy.”

Alcaraz, the reigning Roland Garros and US Open champion, will face one of two Alexanders in the quarterfinals: No. 6 seed De Minaur or No. 10 seed Bublik. “I have to control the things that I can control,” said Alcaraz, who leads De Minaur 5-0 in their head-to-head but has never played Bublik before. “You know, if it is going to be really, really hot on Tuesday and the roof is going to be closed, I gotta to be accepted that and just trying to play my best tennis on indoor.

ATP

Sinner’s serve numbers reveal a mixed picture despite his dominance

Sinner’s serve stats show elite power, but his first-serve percentage still leaves room for growth.

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Jannik Sinner’s serve has long been viewed as a major part of his rise to the top of the men’s game, yet the numbers from the past year tell a more complicated story.

The world No 1 adjusted his service motion shortly before he began establishing himself as a leading force on the ATP Tour, and that weapon stood out again when he defended his Wimbledon title earlier this month.

After losing the US Open final to Carlos Alcaraz last September, Sinner made it clear that he wanted more variety and consistency on serve. His own words at the time showed how deliberate that change was:

“I can say that I’m gonna become a better tennis player and I’m gonna change a couple of things on the serve, just small things, but, they can make big differences and then we see how it goes,” said Sinner. after that defeat against Alcaraz in New York.

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“I’m looking forward to play these matches again, something new is now that I’m not No 1 anymore. Now you chase, it’s different.

“Maybe I will lose some matches from now on, but I will try to do some changes, trying to be a bit more unpredictable as a player and because I think that’s what I have to do, trying to become a better tennis player.”

Even with his strong recent run, the ATP Tour figures for the last 12 months show that there is still work to be done in one area. Sinner ranks 35th in first serve percentage at 63.8%, well behind Alexander Zverev, who leads the list at 72.5%.

The Italian, however, is far more dominant once the first serve lands. He leads the tour in service points won at 80.9%, just ahead of Reilly Opelka on 80.8% and Taylor Fritz on 79.7%.

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He also tops service games won at 92.9%, underlining how difficult he is to break. Opelka follows on 90.6%, with Ben Shelton third at 90.4% and Alcaraz at 89.9%.

One remaining area is ace production. Sinner is 27th in that category with an average of 8.2 per match, while Opelka leads with 18.5, followed by Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on 15.1 and Fritz on 14.1.

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ATP

Sinner climbs to No 4 on all-time prize money list after Wimbledon defence

Sinner’s Wimbledon defence lifts him to No 4 on the all-time prize money list in 2026.

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Jannik Sinner’s successful Wimbledon title defence brought more than another major trophy. It also lifted the Italian to No 4 on the all-time career prize money list.

Before Wimbledon 2026, Sinner sat at No 6, with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer occupying the top three spots and Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz positioned above him. Zverev had recently passed both Alcaraz and Sinner after his French Open run, but the order shifted again once Sinner collected $4,830,756 (£3,600,000) for his latest Wimbledon triumph.

That result leaves Sinner close to becoming only the fourth player to move beyond $70m in career prize money. He has already earned $11,620,364 in 2026 and is on track to break the $20m barrier for the first time in a season.

His rise has been rapid. Last year, he took in $19,120,641, a total that included a record $5,071,000 for winning the ATP Finals undefeated. He finished second on the 2025 earnings list behind Alcaraz, who made $21,354,778, after leading the way in 2024 with $19,735,703.

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At the end of the 2024 season, Sinner stood on $37,238,688. Since the start of the 2025 campaign, he has added another $32,347,873. From just $36 in prize money in his first professional year, he now sits on $69,586,561.

Zverev is fifth with $68,392,312, while Alcaraz is on $64,997,598 after not adding to his tally since April because of injury. Andy Murray has fallen to No 7 on $64,687,542, with Daniil Medvedev eighth on $52,192,594. Djokovic, Sinner, Zverev, Alcaraz and Medvedev are the only active players to have passed $40m.

Djokovic remains far ahead in first place with $194,656,816, including $3,000,801 earned in 2026. Nadal is second on $134,946,100 and Federer third on $130,594,339.

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ATP French Open Grand Slam

Auger-Aliassime Reaches Career-High No. 4 After Breakthrough at Roland Garros

Auger-Aliassime rises to No. 4 after best Roland Garros run, tying second-highest Canadian rank. Now

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Felix Auger-Aliassime moved to a career-high No. 4 in the ATP rankings following his deepest run at Roland Garros, where the 25-year-old reached the quarterfinals for the first time before losing to eventual finalist Flavio Cobolli. The result completed a personal Grand Slam milestone: having previously reached the quarterfinals or better at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, he became the first Canadian man to reach the quarterfinals or better at all four majors in his career.

The rise from No. 6 to No. 4 surpasses his prior best of No. 5 and places him tied for the second-highest-ranked Canadian in ATP or WTA rankings history. The only other Canadians to reach the top four are Milos Raonic and Bianca Andreescu. Raonic went as high as No. 3 in 2016, following his run to the Wimbledon final that year, and Andreescu peaked at No. 4 in 2019 after winning the US Open.

Canadian tennis has seen seven players reach the top 10 in either ATP or WTA history, with official rankings available since 1973 for the ATP and 1975 for the WTA.

Auger-Aliassime still has ground to cover to move higher in the standings. He is 2,865 points behind the current world No. 3, Alexander Zverev, with the rankings showing Zverev at 7,305 points and Auger-Aliassime at 4,440.

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The Canadian will shift his focus to grass. He begins his grass-court season this week at the ATP 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, entering as the No. 1 seed. After a first-round bye he will open against either Hubert Hurkacz or Marton Fucsovics.

The new ranking reflects a season of important progress for Auger-Aliassime and cements his place among the highest-ranked Canadians in modern tennis history.

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