PARIS – World number one Carlos Alcaraz retired injured against Holger Rune at the Paris Masters, sending his fellow 19-year-old through to the semi-finals, while Novak Djokovic and Felix Auger-Aliassime also sealed places in the last four.
Rune outclassed Alcaraz to win the opening set 6-3 and held firm in the second when the top seed raised his game before the Spaniard retired at 3-1 down in the tiebreak having received medical treatment for an abdominal strain at 6-5.
“I cannot stretch. I couldn’t serve well; I couldn’t hit the forehand well said Alcaraz. “I preferred to retire and see it and take care of it.”
Alcaraz was hopeful of making a full recovery for his debut at the ATP Finals in Turin, which begin on Nov. 13, despite the quick turnaround.
“I have some tests on how it’s going to be before Turin,” he added according to Reuters. “But right now I’m focused on trying to get better in the abdominal and trying to be at 100% in Turin.”
Holder and sixth seed Djokovic made light work of Italian youngster Lorenzo Musetti in a 6-0 6-3 win.
Seeking his seventh Paris crown, the defending champion extended his dual win streaks to 12 matches both overall in Bercy, where he won titles in his past two appearances in 2019 and 2021.
With victory in what was his 90th Masters quarter-final, Djokovic advanced to his 74th semi-final at the prestigious level. That mark stands at second-most all-time, behind Nadal’s 76.
Musetti was unable to follow up the biggest win of his career, against World No. 4 Casper Ruud Thursday, with another upset against Djokovic.
Despite the defeat, the Italian has enjoyed a strong final stretch this season, winning his first hard-court title last month in Naples and winning nine of his past 12 matches.
After falling to 0-3 in his ATPHead2Head against Djokovic, he will next turn his attention to the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, set for 8-12 November in Milan.
Djokovic, bidding for his fifth title of the 2022 season, improved to 36-6 on the year. He will need to complete a successful title defence in Paris to maintain his World No. 7 Pepperstone ATP Ranking ahead of the Nitto ATP Finals, which begins on 13 November in Turin.
Danish teenager Rune, bidding to reach four finals in a row, advanced to his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final and earned his third top 10 win in as many days after seeing off Hubert Hurkacz and Andrey Rublev.
He will take on eighth seed Auger-Aliassime in a battle between two of the Tour’s most in-form players and a rematch of the Swiss Indoors final in Basel five days ago, which the Canadian won in straight sets.
Auger-Aliassime extended his winning run to 16 matches after racing to a 6-1 6-4 win over Frances Tiafoe to remain on track for a fourth ATP title in as many weeks, having also won in Florence and Antwerp during his unbeaten run.
The 22-year-old cruised through the first set but Tiafoe dug deep to hold serve and save five match points before Auger-Aliassime sealed a 93-minute victory on his sixth attempt.
“I feel better and better,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Of course right now I’m playing well and feeling good, but I see things that I can still do better and still improve on to be able to top the game.”