A chance encounter with Rod Laver, a trifecta of on-court marriage proposals and a straight-sets passage into the Australian Open quarterfinals gave Carlos Alcaraz plenty to report when recapping his day to his family back home on Saturday.
The Spaniard reached his third straight Melbourne Park quarterfinal following a 7-6(6) 6-4 7-5 victory over Tommy Paul to keep his bid for a career Slam on track and if a good omen was needed before the clash, a meeting with the legendary Laver beneath the arena bearing his name was it.
The Australian great — the only player to have completed a calendar Grand Slam twice — gave the young charge his best before Alcaraz duly delivered, putting on a show for two hours and 44 minutes.
“I think he came with a really strong start, really flat, and for me, it was difficult a little bit, but I stayed there all the time. I knew that I was going to have my chances and I tried to take (them) during the first set,” Alcaraz said.
“I think I did it. So I think overall it's been a really high level of tennis from both sides. But just really, really happy that I got it in straight sets.”
A semifinalist at Melbourne Park three years ago, Paul was a perfect 35 from 35 service games through his first three rounds, so it boded well when he played the perfect return game to break from the off.
It was all well and good against less accomplished opponents but against the might of the world No.1, it was always going to be a challenge to capitalise on his early inroads and in the eighth game, Alcaraz pegged back the arrears.
Heading into the tiebreak, the 22-year-old had won 67 per cent of those contested in the past year, Paul 53 per cent.
With the pair locked at 3-all, play was delayed 12 minutes due to a medical emergency for a spectator and upon resumption, Alcaraz was the more composed under the crunch.
He was so relaxed it seemed, he even found time to remove his hand from the racquet midpoint to blow cold air onto his sweaty palm before putting away an overhead to bring up a set point.
It drew a wry grin from the Spaniard and a point later, he had it in the bag on his opponent’s fourth double fault.
A string of three marriage proposals in 10 seconds from the stands did nothing to throw his rhythm.
First it was “Carlos, marry my daughter, then “Carlos, marry my sister-in-law” before “Carlos marry me” delivered the crowd and the intended recipient a laugh.
While Paul owned two early wins from seven previous encounters, he knew better than to hope the top seed’s concentration would waver.
Having fallen in their two Grand Slam showdowns he knew it was a steep hill to climb if he fell behind two sets, so he made a bold attempt to mix it up with an injection of more pace.
Maintaining control in prolonged rallies was another matter and after being broken early he was unable to recover the deficit.
With a two-set lead after an hour and 46 minutes, the wind was in the Spaniard’s sails. It would have been easy for Paul’s level to fade.
Instead, he found his best in a tightly contested third set and hung tough until 5-all before a string of loose errors cost him his serve and ultimately the contest.
Alcaraz marched on to a last-eight clash against sixth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur or 10th-seeded Kazakhstani Alexander Bublik.
There will be plenty to more to recap in the family chat should he reach a maiden Australian Open semifinal. Distractions, on court at least, will be kept to a minimum.
“Something that I was working on is to maintain the focus in the whole match, which I did today, playing such great tennis since the beginning until the end of the match,” he said.
“So for me it was really, really important more than saving energy, because I just have plenty of (energy). It's more about how I have been playing during almost three hours, which was really high.”