LIVE: Felix Auger-Aliassime vs Carlos Alcaraz: French Open score and updates as Spaniard takes opening set

Auger-Aliassime obviously needs to break this serve without further ado but to be honest he never really gets a look-in. The Spanish player serving with real command and he looks extremely tough to beat.

A double fault notwithstanding, Felix holds his serve.

Pay rise for that physio!  Auger-Aliassime is skipping and stretching around like a good ‘un. Terrific slide and reach here for a ground stroke and he races to 0-40. But Alcaraz doggedly hangs in there.

FAA gets himself into a good position at 30-40. But some poor decision making with a drop shot / at the net and Alcaraz saves a third BP. Eventually wraps up the service hold and that’s a big missed opportunity.

and ready to continue. He is a break down.

Danger here for Montreal’s finest! He’s in trouble at 0-40. He saves the first BP. Second BP, he puts his serve into the net. Strong second serve but CA is on it, gets it back and now produces an absolute bit of class as he threads a passing shot down the line for a break of serve.

After that game, Auger-Aliassime has got the trainer on. He slid and stretched for a ground stroke and he looks to have tweaked a groin muscle. The trainer is giving his inner left thigh a good rub. Now he’s standing up and stretching. He looks in discomfort rather than pain… but no, wait. He’s walking off.

Alcaraz is getting 67% of his first serves in so far. But F A-A is making him work in this game. It’s deuce, and now another deuce. And a third. No break point as yet.

Auger-Aliassime hold his service to love, perhaps that can be a platform for an assault on the Alcaraz serve.

And the Spanish superstar-in-making does the same in the second game of the second set.

The Canadian holds his opening service game.

Looking classy.

And Carlos Alcaraz has wrapped that set up with an authoritative service hold. He was a bit slow out of the blocks in the first game but looks to be taking command of the match now.

Auger-Aliassime tries a drop shot that sits up and begs, Alcaraz buries a winner and roars, urges the crowd to cheer. Pumps his fist. That was the longest rally of the match at 24 shots. Wins the next point as well and Felix is under pressure at 0-30.

That’s it! Carlos with some commanding backhands, excellent judgment of when to approach the net. And he’s converted a break point.

Carlos holds that with authority.

A simpler hold for F A-A this time. A tall man at six-four, he’s got the serve working well, not having to use second serve very often.

Alcaraz comes into this having had problems with his racket hand, and he’s still got a tubing bandage on his right arm. If it is causing him any pain or distress, that’s not discernible to the viewer at this point: he’s walloping balls with that mighty forehand in jolly fashion. Holds his service here.

A very long game, nearly nine minutes, as Carlos has the Canadian’s serve under serious pressure. Felix saves three break points and eventually gets out of it unscathed.

No rain is forecast and it’s a relatively clement 18 degrees.

Scrappy affair so far as the players trade unforced errors. But the first bit of quality comes at 30-0 when Alcaraz comes to the net for a superb serve-and-volley number. Wins that point and then wraps up the game to love.

But the Spaniard breaks straight back.

A break of service in the first game for the underdog! A double fault at 15-30 not helping the cause.

Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog of French Open men’s fourth round action. Carlos Alcaraz and Felix Auger Aliassime will be on court soon after 1pm. That will be sooner than they might have been expecting: they are third on court Philippe-Chatrier today (!) but Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff both absolutely devoured their respective opponents in the day’s earlier matches.

Swiatek battered Anastasia Potapova of Russia 6-0, 6-0  and bear in mind that AP is ranked 43 in the world so hardly a competition winner. Or any sort of winner, on today’s showing. Gauff then wiped the floor with Elisabetta Cocciaretto, the Italian number two, losing only three games in the process. Prior to the match, Cocciaretto said: “Italians, we were born on clay. It’s different for the other players, from China and the United States, who were born on hardcourts. For us, it’s not a comfort zone but our surface.” Womp-womp.

All of which means than Senor Alcaraz will be in action shortly. He seems in fine fettle. He showed steely resolve in his most convincing match at the French Open this year for a 6-4 7-6(5) 6-3 victory over American Sebastian Korda in his last match.

Still wearing a compression sleeve after a recent forearm issue, Alcaraz produced a stellar show in a rematch of the duo’s 2022 encounter to firmly put himself back in the conversation as the favourite to lift the title in Paris and a third major.

“I feel amazing, feel great playing on this court. Obviously I have great memories here,” Alcaraz said.

“Great matches I’ve played before. I’m feeling better and better every match I play. The crowd was amazing. Every day it’s even better. I’m excited to play in the second week in Paris again. Hopefully I’ll keep going.”