Felix Auger-Aliassime "has all the reasons to believe" he can conquer Carlos Alcaraz in Paris

PARIS—Felix Auger-Aliassime is back into the second week of a major tournament following a flourishing finish at a wet Roland Garros.

In a clash carried over from Friday due to inclement weather that persisted for a seventh day running Saturday, the No. 21 seed blitzed 15^th-seeded Ben Shelton, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, under a closed Court Suzanne Lenglen to secure a fourth-round date with world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz.

Resuming with an early break in hand, Auger-Aliassime fought off 15-30 and a shaky double fault to close out the opening set. After holding his nerve there, one-way traffic commenced.

Shelton committed 14 unforced errors to go with just a single winner in dropping a deflating second set.

Much of that had to do with the Canadian finding a groove. Auger-Aliassime did not face a break point and hit at +9 in the winners to unforced errors department over the final two sets to complete the rout.

“As the second set started, I felt like my intentions were clear, and my execution was right. I was able to do what I wanted to do, and at the same time get free points from his side and able to return his serve pretty well,” Auger-Aliassime shared in his press conference.

“So happy with how everything went.”

Last month, the 23-year-old reemerged on a bigger stage by finishing runner-up to Andrey Rublev at the Madrid Masters. Auger-Aliassime notably had two mid-match retirements and a walkover from Jannik Sinner during that run, but also produced a quality victory over ATP season-wins leader Casper Ruud en route to the championship match.

Auger-Aliassime has now played the main draw of the Paris major five times—going out in the opening round on three occasions and getting through to the fourth round in his other pair of trips. The last instance he competed at this stage was two years ago, pushing eventual champion Rafael Nadal to five sets.

Against Alcaraz, Auger-Aliassime owns a 3-2 lead in their head-to-head series—though this will mark the first battle away from indoor or outdoor hard courts.

“Very different conditions now. First time since (the) US Open a while ago when he was just 18 that we played in a Grand Slam,” he noted. “I feel like I have more and more belief in my game and what I do. So I think I have all the reasons to believe that I can win, but obviously, we know the challenge. It's a tough one.”

Let's see what level he brings, let's see what I bring. It's going to be a good match. Felix Auger-Aliassime on facing Carlos Alcaraz

Alcaraz looked like himself in Friday evening’s straight-set victory over Sebastian Korda, bringing more energy and intensity to the court in reducing the ongoing questions about the right forearm injury that sidelined him for three of the four significant clay-court tournaments that proceeded this event.

“If a player comes here and says he's not going to play his game, he's lying or he's going to say he's able to do things that he doesn't know how to do, he's lying again. Obviously, I go out tomorrow playing what I know, doing what I do well,” says Auger-Aliassime.

“If I do that, then let's see during the match how it goes. I'm always open to adapt as the match goes on to see what I'm doing well or less good and what he's doing well.

“Let's see what level he brings, let's see what I bring. It's going to be a good match.”