The Carlos Alcaraz juggernaut continues to roll on at the 2026 US Open, but the defending champion was caught offside when he was asked about his next opponent.

The seven-time Grand Slam winner breezed into the quarter-final of the season-ending Grand Slam with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over 20th seed Tommy Paul, and up next at Flushing Meadows is erm… definitely not Daniil Medvedev or Frances Tiafoe.

The Spaniard headlines the bottom half of the draw and will face the winner of bracket seven in the last eight with Stefanos Tsitsipas and Ben Shelton the men who battled it out for the honour of facing the second seed.

Eighth seed Shelton emerged victorious with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win over the Greek, but Alcaraz was clearly not keeping an eye on that match as he expected to face the winner of the Medvedev-Tiafoe encounter.

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During a post-match interview with ESPN, former world No 1 Andy Roddick asked Alcaraz about the challenges that he could face against Tsitsipas or Shelton and he replied: “Say again, say again.”

Roddick: “You’re either going to play Shelton or Tsitispas, maybe just a word on both of them.”

Alcaraz: “I thought, I thought, oh my God, I thought I was playing Medvedev-Tiafoe.”

Both started laughing with Roddick stating: “Surprise!”

Alcaraz then admitted, “I didn’t see the draw, I guess.”

The Spaniard has a 3-0 head-to-head record against Shelton, having won in Canada in 2023, the Laver Cup in 2024 and Roland Garros in 2025, dropping only one set during their round of 16 encounter at last year’s French Open.

Later during his post-match press conference, Alcaraz finally got his ducks in a row when asked about Shelton, he replied: “A really powerful player. I think he used the crowd, the people you know behind him you know, especially when you know he’s playing here at home.

“So I’m excited about playing you know the quarter-final … So I got to be I got to be ready. I’m going to watch it and I’ll be I’ll be ready for that.”

As for his own game, Alcaraz is starting to feel confident after reaching the last eight despite spending the last four months on the sidelines with his wrist injury.

“I didn’t expect to reach [at least] the quarter-finals here every year since 2021, so that shows how special this place is to me,” he stated.

“It shows how good I play every time I come here. It doesn’t matter that I was out for four and a half months: Every time that I come here I play my best.”