Carlos Alcaraz is into the quarter-finals at the US Open as he cruised past Tommy Paul in straight sets.

It was a vintage performance from the defending champion who came through his toughest test yet in style.

A tough first set was produced on Arthur Ashe Stadium as Paul took the match to the second seed and had some half-opportunities early on.

The Alcaraz forehand was on fire though and the Spaniard held his nerve and aimed to test the American’s serve.

There was some aggressive first serves as well as some good use of variety from Paul as he made the opening set competitive.

As great champions do, Alcaraz found a way past the American as he comfortably broke for the opening set.

From then on it was one-way traffic for Alcaraz who comfortably predicted Paul’s patterns of play.

The world number 21 was broken twice in the opening stages as Alcaraz had chances for a 3-1 lead and had chances for another break of serve.

However, Alcaraz had to settle for the two breaks as he comfortably took a two set lead in what looked like an inevitable win.

A break in the third game all but sealed the victory but there was nearly a late twist…..

Alcaraz was forced to save a couple of break points before he wrapped up the victory on his first match point.

After the match Alcaraz admitted he was happy with his performance against Paul, “I played my game. I tried to play my style,” Alcaraz explained to the ATP website.

“Tommy is such a talented player. His shots are pretty dangerous and sometimes it is really difficult to control the ball when it comes to you. I just tried to be ready for a battle and tried to be aggressive all the time.

”I tried not to let him stay [high up] on the court and I think I did pretty well to put so much pressure on return games, which for me helped a lot to play relaxed, to play calm and think clearly. I’m really happy with the performance today.”

The win means that Alcaraz has beaten Paul at all four Grand Slams in his career and the Spaniard is in fine form heading into the final eight.

Next up for the Spaniard will face either Ben Shelton or Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the US Open semi-finals