Before American Tommy Paul played defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, he said that the serve is always the most important shot in men’s tennis and that would be something he’d want to do very well in the next round.

Paul, who has an excellent serve, did not serve as well as he’d hoped, only hitting 60% of his first serves in.

The Spaniard beat the 12th seeded American 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in three hours and 11 minutes.

In his post-match press conference, Paul said: “I didn’t serve super great today. I mean, I couldn’t find a first serve. It’s tough to play anybody in the top

hundred not serving well on first serves. He was all over my second, it felt like. It wasn’t a fun situation.

Photo by Aaron Chown

“I would have liked to serve better. It’s hard to start on offense when he’s serving, and it’s hard to start on offense when you’re starting every point with

second serves.

“But yeah, I mean, he played first-strike tennis better than I did. He got on offense way quicker. I think that’s what won him the match.”

It was an exciting match to watch under the roof—you could hear the heavy rain pounding down—and Paul played a wonderful first set.

In the second set, at 3-all, the American played one loose game with two double faults—his only in the match—and that was all the Spaniard needed.

From then on, Alcaraz kept raising his level, and by the end, it felt he could do no wrong, crushing serves and forehands, changing spins and speeds with lobs and drop shots and volleys.

Paul said of Alcaraz: “When he starts building energy and building momentum, I don’t know, it feels a little bit different than most of the other guys. He can play some seriously amazing, amazing tennis.

“Half of the job when you’re out there is not to let him win one of those crazy points because when he does, he kind of gets on a roll.”

Alcaraz said in his post-match press conference that he was happy to be back in the semifinal of Wimbledon and happy about his level that he’s playing.

“Obviously is different conditions when the roof is open and when the roof is closed,” the Spaniard said.

“I felt the difference playing on Centre Court and on Court 1. The grass is different.

“Obviously, I feel like it was more sand on Court 1 than Centre Court. I don’t want to say holes. There were more matches on Court 1 than Centre Court.

“I had to adapt my game on that. I didn’t feel comfortable at all playing on Court 1 with the conditions on it. As I said, I had to adapt my game on it. I tried to play my best tennis on it.

“Yeah, I think at the end I found it, I found my best tennis and my good tennis just to feel comfortable on it. It was difficult to found it.”

Next up for Alcaraz is fifth seed Daniil Medvedev.