WORLD number three and reigning Roland Garros champion Carlos Alcaraz is just three wins away from a maiden Olympic gold medal after skipping past Roman Safiullin in a comfortable straight sets victory, 6-4 6-2. Alcaraz needed an hour and 29 minutes to dispatch of the neutral athlete and advance through to the Paris quarter finals.

Alcaraz won his sets in 44 and 45 minutes respectively, with Safiullin putting up a fight even when down a couple of breaks, but could not sustain it as the Spaniard looked a class above. Fittingly, Alcaraz served out the match with an ace to reach the last eight.

Producing a sublime five aces and 16 winners to Safiullin’s nil and 14, Alcaraz also hit far less unforced errors (11-23) as he made the Russian-born Saffiulin work for every point. Though Safiullin did serve at a higher consistency (71 per cent), he won just 53.7 per cent of his first serve points and 53.8 per cent of his second serve points.

By comparison, Alcaraz won a huge 80 per cent off his first serve to make it near impossible to be broken. To Safiullin’s credit the once chance he got he took, but opportunities were few and far between, as Alcaraz broke four times from eight shots, and also won approaching the net at a much higher 64 per cent to Safiullin’s 46 per cent.

The second seed advanced through to the quarter finals where he will take on ninth seeded American Tommy Paul in the last eight. Paul ended the run of the last Frenchman Corentin Moutet in a tight straight sets win 7-6 6-3, to be the last United States representative in either of the singles draws.

Top ranked American and seventh seed Taylor Fritz fell to Italian Lorenzo Musetti 6-4 7-5, and will go on to face reigning gold medallist, German Alexander Zverev. The third seed reached the quarter finals after eliminating Aussie Alexei Popyrin.

In the top quarter of the draw, world number two and top seed Novak Djokovic‘s quest for an elusive gold medal continued with a victory over German Dominik Koepfer 7-5 6-3, and the 24-time Grand Slam winner will take on eighth seed Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter finals.

The remaining Round of 16 results saw the biggest upset occur with Canadian 13th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime defeating world number five Daniil Medvedev 6-3 7-6, and will now take on Norwegian Casper Ruud for a chance at an Olympic medal. Rudd defeated Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo 6-3 6-4 who was eliminated alongside compatriot Sebastian Baez who fell to Tsitsipas.

MEN’S SINGLES RESULTS: ROUND OF 16

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) defeated Dominic Koepfer (GER) 7-5 6-3
[2] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) defeated Roman Safiullin (AIN) 6-4 6-2
[3] Alexander Zverev (GER) defeated Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 7-5 6-3
[13] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) defeated [4] Daniil Medvedev (AIN) 6-3 7-6
[6] Casper Ruud (NOR) defeated Francisco Cerundolo (ARG) 6-3 6-4
[11] Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) defeated [7] Taylor Fritz (USA) 6-4 7-5
[8] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GER) defeated Sebastian Baez (ARG) 7-5 6-1
[9] Tommy Paul (USA) defeated Corentin Moutet (FRA) 7-6 6-3

In the men’s doubles, Aussie pair Matthew Ebden and John Peers kept their chance to add more gold than green by reaching the semi-finals of the event. The unseeded Australian pair defeated German duo Jan-Lennard Struff and Koepfer in straight sets, grinding out tiebreaker victories, 7-6 7-6.

Unfortunately the Aussies will likely have to play both their semi-finals and medal match on the same day, with the last of the quarter finals scheduled for tomorrow. Third seeds Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul won through to the last eight and will take on retiring Brit and Grand Slam winner Andy Murray and his partner Daniel Evans overnight.

The other semi-final pits surprise semi-finalists in unseeded Czech pair Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek – who ousted second seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz – against fourth seeds Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram. The American duo had little sense of theatre, eliminating the crowd favourite ‘Nadalcaraz’ (Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal) rather easily in the end, 6-2 6-4.

MEN’S DOUBLES RESULTS: QUARTER FINALS

T. Machac/A. Pavlasek (CZE) defeated [2] K. Krawietz/T. Puetz (GER) 3-6 6-1 10-5
[4] A. Krajicek/R. Ram (USA) defeated C. Alcatraz/R. Nadal (ESP) 6-2 6-4
M. Ebden/J. Peers (AUS) defeated D. Koepfer/J. Struff (GER) 7-6 7-6

MEN’S DOUBLES RESULTS: ROUND OF 16

[3] T. Fritz/T. Paul (USA) defeated R. Haase/J. Rojer (NED) 6-3 6-4