Alejandro Davidovich Fokina came into the match 0-4 against Tommy Paul, but there was still plenty of excitement around this one. The 26-year-old had just survived a grueling five-set battle against fellow American Reilly Opelka, and fans inside John Cain Arena were hoping for another thriller. Instead, the night ended far sooner than anyone expected.

The match ended just two sets in, with Paul up 6-1, 6-1, when Davidovich Fokina sounded the injury alarm. He took a medical timeout and received treatment for what looked like a left hamstring and thigh issue.

“I felt a twinge in my left hamstring. Against a guy like Paul, with one leg, it was impossible to win,” said Davidovich Fokina. Paul, the No. 19 seed, was in cruise control on Friday night, as he has been all tournament.

Things started to go wrong early in the second set, when Davidovich Fokina began showing visible signs of struggle and was unable to move properly. Despite trying to push through, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina eventually made the tough call to stop after the second set.

He couldn’t handle the constant baseline pressure from Tommy Paul. “It wasn’t worth continuing because I wasn’t going to compete; I wasn’t going to do anything. I was just going to waste my time,” Fokina said, clearly upset.

For the Spaniard, this marks yet another unfortunate injury amidst a packed calendar. Even in his hard-fought win against Opelka, Davidovich Fokina had to battle through a twisted ankle.

Last year, after retiring due to injury against Andrey Rublev in Montreal, Davidovich Fokina wrote on X, “Everything’s good. But this calendar… oh my gosh 😅. Now a few days off to 🔋💪🏽,” he wrote, in a post translated from Spanish.

That came after another tough moment, as he had just lost the Washington, D.C. final to Alex de Minaur. It was his second big disappointment heading into the US Open.

As for Melbourne, the loss meant Davidovich Fokina’s Australian Open run came to another abrupt end. Meanwhile, Tommy Paul moved into the fourth round for the third time in four years, continuing the strong showing by American men in 2026.

Paul will now face top seed Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Corentin Moutet 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 in two hours and five minutes at Rod Laver Arena to reach the last 16 earlier today.

With extra energy after the short match, Paul heads into the next round, and he’s expressed nothing but sympathy and good wishes for Davidovich Fokina.

Tommy Paul commiserates with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina as he looks to improve

After the match, Tommy Paul admitted he felt for his opponent. “I mean, not too much I did wrong today. Obviously, feel bad for Foki. He’s always a tough out. I’m not sure what he’s dealing with today, but he’s clearly struggling with something. So I feel bad for him and his team, but I was happy with the way that I played today,” Paul said.

With the victory, Paul also improved his head-to-head record against Davidovich Fokina to 5-0, firmly in his favor. And now, attention turns to what he has planned for the rest of the 2026 season.

Just a few days ago, Paul spoke with Nick Remsen at Interview Magazine about how he was feeling this season. “I’m pretty motivated this year just because last year, I had so many goals that I wasn’t able to accomplish, and then I wasn’t even able to finish the year,” he said.

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He went on to explain, “I’m trying to avenge last year in some sort of way. Last year, my goal was quarters or better in every Slam. And I started the year great, doing quarters here in Australia and at the French Open. And then at Wimbledon, my body fell apart. It was such a roller coaster of a year.”

For 2026, Paul says he has two main goals: to play without pain, and to finally achieve the goals he set for himself last season. Now that he’s off to a strong start, do you think he will be able to defeat Carlos Alcaraz next and fulfil his goals?