Carlos Alcaraz ‘couldn’t quite hear’ Ben Shelton at Roland Garros—but ‘it sounded nice!’

For three hours and 19 minutes on Sunday, Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton battled inside Court Philippe Chatrier with a trip to the Roland Garros quarterfinals on the line.

The two brought plenty of electric shot-making and multiple momentum shifts throughout the intriguing showdown—one that saw the Spaniard stave off three set points in a crucial opening tiebreak.

The No. 2 seed would eventually go on to serve out the 7-6 (8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory to reach the last eight in Paris for the fourth consecutive year.

When the two approached the net, their smiling faces lit up the venue. To those watching or documenting a warm embrace that followed, it was clear Alcaraz and Shelton share a mutual respect.

“Apart from being a great player, he’s also a great person,” Alcaraz explained during the Spanish portion of his post-match press conference.

“We get along super well. Of course on the court there are no friends—we both want to win and we’ll both do our best to defeat the other. But it’s also important to know how to accept a defeat, even though it hurts.”

He said… he said... Well, he said something but I couldn’t quite hear exactly what he said. Carlos Alcaraz

As they embraced, the competitors laughed and exchanged pleasantries before going their separate ways. But whatever the left-hander conveyed to the world No. 2, however, was lost in translation—or in the roar of the crowd—as Alcaraz admitted in our Tennis.com Quote du Jour:

CARLOS ALCARAZ: Apart from being a great player, he’s also a great person. We get along super well.

Of course, on the court there are no friends: We both want to win and we’ll both do our best to defeat the other. But it’s also important to know how to accept a defeat, even though it hurts.

It was a great gesture from Ben, and it was a nice moment even though one had to win and one had to lose.

Q. What did he say to you at the net?

CARLOS ALCARAZ: He said… he said... Well, he said something but I couldn’t quite hear exactly what he said. (Laughter)

It sounded nice, but I couldn’t quite hear him! (Laughing)

For Shelton, his two major exits this year have come at the hands of the respective defending champions—having fallen to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open semifinals. But the “ironic” experience of feeling like he made strides against Alcaraz on clay of all surfaces furthered his belief that he’s knocking on the door of making his biggest statement yet.

“Those two matches I've lost at slams this year, I consider myself a really good Grand Slam match player,” he said in his press conference.

“Hopefully I can continue to improve and take that next step, because that's where I want to be.”