Carlos Alcaraz is the best men's player on clay. It seems to be a Spanish thing. Rafael Nadal dominated the French Open for almost two decades, and fellow Spaniard Alcaraz is well on his way to doing the same.
What seems to be shaping up is the same situation we had with Novak Djokovic and Nadal. Djokovic was better on hard courts than Nadal, but Nadal was clearly better on clay. Both are all-time greats, and the surface doesn't matter. They were better than most other players on any surface.
The same holds for Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Sinner is the ATP No. 1 for a reason. He is the most consistent high-level player on any surface. He might fall short of Alcaraz on clay, but is likely to do so rarely on a hard court. Both young players are probably going to be historically great.
Carlos Alcaraz moves into the fourth round of the 2025 French Open
On Day 6 of the 2025 French Open, Alcaraz faced Damir Dzumhur and squeaked by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian in four sets. Dzumhur delayed the third set a bit by taking an injury timeout after he might have tweaked his hamstring in the third set, but the score might have had more to do with him needing to take time.
Alcaraz toyed with his opponent for the most part. He won the match 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-4, but to be fair, he should have won more easily. He was far from perfect, but he shouldn't have needed to be. Dzumhur wasn't, and never will be, close to Alcaraz's equal, and yet he kept hanging around, often beating the Spaniard at the net.
Dzumhur has nothing to be ashamed of. He fought hard, and in the last half of the match was as good as Alcaraz, but the Spaniard has too many tools to work with and is a tough out in five sets. If he doesn't play better against high-end competition, though, Alcaraz will be in trouble in future matches in Paris.
The Spaniard will next take on big-hitting American Ben Shelton. Alcaraz's touch will probably be far too much for Shelton, and Americans usually don't do well on clay. It was still good for Shelton that he made it to the fourth round, though.
As with almost all the previous days in this year's French Open, there were no major upsets. Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Jasmine Paolini all moved on on the women's side. On the men's side, Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, and Holger Rune all moved on.