Carlos Alcaraz continued his return from long-term injury with a hugely impressive fourth-round win against Tommy Paul at the US Open. Playing just his fourth competitive singles match after an absence of more than four months, the 23-year-old Spaniard produced a masterful performance to beat American 20th seed Paul 6-4 6-3 6-4.

He has dropped only one set on his way to the last eight in New York and his quarter-final opponent will be either American eighth seed Ben Shelton or Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas. A wrist injury caused Alcaraz to miss both the French Open and Wimbledon earlier this summer.

Alcaraz said after his third-round win that he was happy with the level of fitness he had shown in the early rounds following his lengthy absence, while he demonstrated against Paul that the quality of his shot-making is as good as ever. Former British number one Tim Henman told Sky Sports: "When you haven't played tennis for four weeks, it seems a lot and you can be a bit rusty. This is four and a half months."

If you would have given Alcaraz a blank piece of paper at the beginning of the tournament and asked how you'd want the first four matches to go, he would have scripted it exactly like that. He's had a few slightly challenging moments but, in the important moments, he's just come up with incredible tennis. That's got to give him so much confidence moving forward.