Tennis-Rune into Paris semi-finals after Alcaraz retires

World number one Carlos Alcaraz retired injured against Holger Rune at the Paris Masters on Friday, sending his fellow 19-year-old through to a semi-final clash against Felix Auger-Aliassime after the Canadian extended his winning run to 16 matches. Rune outclassed Alcaraz on serve to win the opening set 6-3 and held firm in the second when the Spaniard stepped up his level before retiring four points into the tiebreak, having received medical treatment for an abdominal strain at 6-5.

World number one Carlos Alcaraz retired injured against Holger Rune at the Paris Masters on Friday, sending his fellow 19-year-old through to a semi-final clash against Felix Auger-Aliassime after the Canadian extended his winning run to 16 matches.

Rune outclassed Alcaraz on serve to win the opening set 6-3 and held firm in the second when the Spaniard stepped up his level before retiring four points into the tiebreak, having received medical treatment for an abdominal strain at 6-5. Alcaraz will have nine days to recover for the Nov. 13-20 ATP Finals in Turin, where he is set to make his debut.

"I cannot stretch. I couldn't serve well, I couldn't hit the forehand well said Alcaraz, who withdrew with Rune leading 6-3 6-6 (3-1) in the quarter-final. "I preferred to retire and see it, and take care about it. "Right now I have (to undergo) some tests on how it's going to be before Turin. I'm focused on trying to get better in the abdominal and trying to be at 100% in Turin."

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 raced 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." Reigning champion Novak Djokovic will take on Italy's Lorenzo Musetti while Tommy Paul will be up against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the other quarter-finals later on Friday.