Carlos Alcaraz reaches Australian Open Quarterfinal

Carlos Alcaraz has moved into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open after defeating Tommy Paul, continuing his run in Melbourne.

The win also came with a milestone. Alcaraz now has 14 Grand Slam singles quarterfinal appearances before the age of 23, the most by any player in the Open Era. He moves ahead of Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker, who both reached 13.

After the match, Alcaraz was in a relaxed mood during his on court interview, joking about his serving.

When told he had been making more first serves than usual, Alcaraz replied:
“I’m surprising myself, to be honest.”

There was also laughter when the interviewer pointed out how loudly the crowd reacted as he changed his shirt.

“When you change your shirt, man, the crowd’s going crazy. You’re kind of milking it,” he was told.

Alcaraz smiled and responded:
“I don’t, to be honest. I just want to feel comfortable for the interview. I’m just happy the people like it.”

He was also asked about comparisons between his serve motion and that of Novak Djokovic, after Djokovic joked that Alcaraz might owe him money for copying it.

“Novak’s like, ‘Wait, that’s my serve. He’s gonna have to pay me some money for that serve.’ Did you hear him say that?” Alcaraz was asked.

“Yeah, I heard that,” Alcaraz said. “I have the contract over there, but I haven’t seen him yet.”